


Prime Moon

by Miller5526



Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers: Prime
Genre: Animal Transformation, Anxiety, Anxiety Attacks, Bipolar Disorder, Gen, Hiding, Insecurity, Oblivious, Original Character(s), Scents & Smells, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-16
Updated: 2019-04-16
Packaged: 2020-01-14 20:01:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 40,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18483355
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miller5526/pseuds/Miller5526
Summary: Lilly is a 15 year old werewolf living in Jasper Nevada. She's noticed the giant beings roaming around her town, but it isn't until she becomes friends with a strange group of high schoolers that she truly understands what's going on.(I don't own transformers or any of it's characters)





	1. Chapter 1

I know about the aliens, how couldn't I? Everytime they go anywhere they speed and blow everything up around them. They change into what seems like the most flashy looking cars possible. Heck, I'm pretty sure one even turns into an ambulance. Now, I don't know much about these beings other then, they're aliens, made out of some sort of metal, and seem to be fighting each other.

Anyways, my name is Lilly Reager, I'm a 15 year old werewolf living in Jasper Nevada. I haven't lived here my whole life, our family used to be a part of this huge pack over in Wisconsin, but we were kicked out after they caught my dad doing drugs. My mother died a few years back in a car accident and now it's just me and my dad. Oh, my mom was the werewolf and my dad was the human that fell for her. So i've been able to fully shift into a wolf my whole life. I have short blonde almost white hair and blue eyes, I stand up to a total of 5ft 5in and I weigh 135lbs. When I shift, my wolf form is grey with black speckles.

Now, before you ask about what my type of werewolf is (there are a crap ton of werewolf theories) I am just your super simple werewolf. We can willingly shift if you were born into it, you are practically forced under the full moon, and when we shift you become an actual wolf. Now, there isn't any of that “true mate” business as far as I know, but I was too young to really remembered the teachings of our pack alpha.

So, as far as I know, I'm the only werewolf in this town, and apparently I'm also the only person that actually knows what's going on around them. I guess my intense sense of hearing, smell, and sight might help with that. But I can't be the only one waking up to the sound of explosions at 3 in the morning. Sometimes I would hear my dad stop snoring after a particularly loud explosion, but he always went right back to sleep. Oh, my father was too much of a deadbeat to enroll me into school this year (I had been taking online courses) so I had to try and do it myself. Which didn't really work out, long story short, they're already a month into school and today is my first day, and honestly, I'm a little scared.

I pushed open the heavy door to a hallway filled with loud sounds and horrible smells. Lockers slamming, girls gossiping, and jocks laughing. I got a whiff of BO, a crap ton of hormones, and probably the weirdest smelling chemical I have ever smelled. It wasn't until I saw the vapor that I realised what it was. You know, to normal humans I heard that you can choose the smell, and some of the “flavors” were nice, but to someone who can smell every single chemical, it's repulsive.

Mentally doing an eye roll, I hiked my backpack strap back up my shoulder and started pushing my way through the halls flooded with teenagers. Once I found my locker I glanced down at the paper which held my schedule and locker information.

When I got it opened I was a little surprised to find graffiti littered across the inside. Things like ‘Kylie is a bitch’ and ‘Jason has AIDs’. Ignoring them, I pulled out all of my supplies and quickly put the things I needed before lunch in my bag.

That's when I heard a loud bang against a locker, the conversation died down as everyone's attention was drawn to the commotion. I quietly closed my locker and looked over to where the sound had come from. A tall teen with orange hair was standing over a small kid who was on his butt, his back leaning against a slightly dented locker. Next to the small kid were glasses, I guessed they were the kids. The redhead crouched down and was about to clasp the front of the kids shirt.

Before I knew what I was doing, I was suddenly behind the redhead, pulling him up by the back of his shirt. By the whispers of the bystanders around us, this teenagers name was Vince. I forcefully stood the teen onto his feet and turned him so he was facing me. As soon as he saw who it was that stopped him, his face broke into a furious expression. I saw his left hand tensing and I could smell the anger wafting off of him, by the quick change in emotion I guessed he was bipolar.

Before Vince could say or do anything, the bell rang, which to be honest, hurt my ears like a son of a bitch. It all of my willpower not to cover my ears, I wouldn't be surprised if they were bleeding at this point. Everyone scattered in practicality every direction, Vince included. I turned towards the lockers and saw the kid who had just grabbed his glasses and was readjusting them on his face, still sitting on the floor. I walked over to him and silently reached out my hand in an offer to help him up. He looked up at me in surprise, then smiled and took my hand. I was about to leave when I saw he was fine, but he spoke before I had the chance.

“Um, thanks”

I looked back at him and smiled.

“Yeah, it was no problem. Now, we better get to class.”

That's when I noticed the kid's features and height, even by his scent, which I could faintly smell at this distance, I could tell he was the youngest kid here. I gave him a curious and slightly concerned expression, I'm not the best with social interactions.

“Not to be rude or anything, but aren't you a little young to be in high school?”

He laughed quietly and pushed his glasses up his nose, we both ended up walking in the same direction as he tried to explain himself.

“Well, you see, I was the smartest in my class and I was bumped up a grade or two.”

I nodded and checked my schedule again as I entered the class I had, the kid entered the room across the hall. The thought of catching his name hadn't crossed my mind until it was already too late. I sat in a desk three away from the window and two from the front.

School went by faster than I was expecting, each class feeling a little overwhelming with all of the distractions and homework being assigned in almost every class. It was the last class of the day and I sat in the desk all of the way in the back right corner. A slightly familiar scent drifted towards me and I looked up from the homework I was rushing to get done. Sitting to my right was the kid I saved from the bully this morning. He shyly waved to me and I smiled back, giving him a small wave with my hand holding my pencil. I quickly went back to my homework and couldn't help but eavesdrop as someone sat next to him.

It took me a couple seconds to figure out if she was a friend of his or someone else he needed to be protected from. That thought quickly caught my attention. Why did I feel the need to protect this kid now? From the girl's whispering I figured out his name was Raf, and her name was Miko, what a strange name.

Class went by normally, except for the girl, Miko would make a rather loud comment about something the teacher said or did. I could tell by her posture and hormones that she was excited for something. I could only guess what it was, but I did hear something about how she was going to do something called “dune bashing” with someone called Bulkhead.

Class was over and we all stood up as the bell rang. Gathering my books and shoving them in my bag, I started towards my locker. Unfortunately I was stopped by a large group of people clogging up the hallways, I felt pathetic as I couldn't bring myself to just plow through everybody. While looking for somewhere to pass, I ran into Raf, Miko, and another person.

As soon as the young teen saw me Raf enthusiastically waved me over. Looking back at the still clogged halls, I quickly walked over to the small group. Raf introduced me as ‘the girl who saved me from Vince’ and I could almost feel a respect for me growing in his friends. Apparently his other friend was named Jack, he seemed pretty level headed, definitely more so than Miko.

I quickly became a part of their little group, we walked through the halls which had cleared up quite a bit and we all apparently had lockers close to each other. As I followed them to the front of the school, I caught the sight of something familiar out of the corner of my eye. There was a yellow and black camaro sitting next to a blue motorcycle and another green vehicle.

The only thing I had to do was smell the air, then I knew why those vehicles were familiar. Jack and Miko waved to me as they got on/in the green humvee and blue motorcycle. When Raf headed towards the yellow and black vehicle I quickly ran to him and firmly put my hand on his shoulder, making sure to stop him without hurting him. When he turned back to look at me, he wore a confused and slightly betrayed expression. I internally flinched at his expression, but didn't show it.

Taking my hand off his shoulder I expressed my nervousness by glancing at the camaro and back at Raf. When he didn't get the hint is when I decided to speak.

“Are you sure that vehicle is safe for you to be in?”

Raf looked at me even more confused, I cringed as his face twitched a little in a change in emotion. Fear and a small amount of amusement started flooding through his scent. I couldn't bare smelling the fear coming from him so I tried to blow it off as a joke, I would try to figure out this situation later.

“If the wrong person is behind the wheel you could get into some serious pain, I bet that vehicle has a lot of horsepower.”

I smiled and winked at him, he quickly relaxed and laughed a little. There was a large amount of certainty in his response.

“Oh, I trust him with my life, I don't know anyone who drives better than he does. Goodbye, see you tomorrow.”

He waved as he ran towards the alien disguised as a yellow camaro with racing stripes. I normally would've been a little more careful in this situation, but I guessed that has been his mode of transportation for a while and he would be fine until I figure out what was going on.

Deliberately walking on the sidewalk that was by the alien, I tried to listen to the kid's conversation. What I heard just confused me more. He was talking to it like it understood him and he actually gave it a name I guess. There was a person at the wheel, but Raf completely ignored him. I was definitely going to have to talk to Raf about the alien situation soon.


	2. Chapter 2

As I walked home I thought about the whole day, pondering the outcome of the “fight” and all of the homework I had to finish tonight. The town was fairly quiet on my walk home, no neighbors yelling or aliens running about. 

When I got home I nudged over the flowerpot next to the door and grabbed the spare key which was hidden underneath. Readjusting the dead plant, I unlocked the door and tossed my backpack to the left and closed the door behind me. I hung my key up on the hooks next to the door and took off my shoes. Stopping to listen, I was satisfied when I heard my dad snoring over the sound of the TV.

I shifted through the papers and books in my backpack. Once I got the proper papers I quickly ran upstairs, taking two stairs at a time. I changed my clothes and settles on my bed quickly starting my homework. When I got frustrated I grabbed my phone and started playing music.

Once I finished my homework I carefully listened for any indication that my father had woken up. When I heard his snores still coming from the living room I was satisfied. Quickly throwing on a light sweatshirt, I slipped out the back door which was always unlocked and headed for a nearby forest. I was itching to shift ever since being locked into a building filled with people all day. Strolling through the woods I looked for a good secluded place to leave my clothes and shift. If anyone saw me in wolf form there would be a big fuss, wolves weren't a normal sight in Nevada. I remember in Wisconsin when it wasn't a big deal to see a wolf. When I found a good spot, I quickly stripped and shifted

Shifting wasn't a pleasant process, you could hear bones breaking down to become smaller and joints mutating. Thankfully the process wasn't the least bit painful for born werewolves. But I've heard that it can be excruciatingly painful for the bitten. As soon as I had fully shifted I streatched my back legs and shook my coat. My father knows about the whole werewolf thing and knew where I was when I wasn't home, surprisingly he was okay with it.

As soon as I had fully settled I felt roughly 50 scents hit me at once. While in human for we had a good sense of smell yes, but in wolf form it was unbelievable, it was almost like a high, an itch you were never able to reach. I could smell and hear everything in a 20 mile radius. There were rabbits and bluejays rustling leaves five yards to my left. A squirrel was burying an acorn 7 ft to my left. My ears perked up as I heard the sound of hooves pounding on the forest floor. It was coming in my direction, I turned around and waited for the deer to come into my sight. As soon as I saw the hooved animal I took off. 

At this point I had just let my wolf instincts take over, it was nice to just have my mind on one thing at a time. I followed the deer, which was a 3 pointer and my mind fogged over again when it started to gain distance. It wasn't until we burst through the tree line that I realised I needed to come back into control. In a matter of seconds I was standing on the road which followed along the border of the forest. As soon as I was finally in control I heard a large vehicle slam on their brakes. Before I could do the logical thing and jump into the ditch, I whipped my wolf head towards the vehicle, my ears perking up in attention. I saw a flash of blue and red, my last thought was ‘that's a cool looking semi’ as I was hit and sent flying a couple of feet away from the large truck.

________________________________________

 

Pain was the first thing I felt, the scents around me hadn't even registered through the pain. But this pain was familiar, it was the pain that came with one of the perks of being a werewolf, my body was healing rapidly. I could still feel most of my body, but my right front leg was definitely broken, thankfully, it was blissfully numb at the moment while my body focused on healing the smaller wounds first.

It was after that revelation that I took a deep breath through my nose, and stopped half way through the filling of my lungs. Where ever I was, it definitely wasn't outside. Snapping my eyes open I scented the air again, but quickly stopped at what I saw. The building I was in was huge, definitely made for either construction or some freakishly tall beings. That's when I took one more shot at smelling the air and I realised exactly where I was. With my mind more clear I knew this scent all too well. This had to be the alien's main base of operations. I could smell the metallic beings all over, there had to be at least 3 of them in this building with how strongly it smelled.

I quickly remembered the semi that hit me and figured it was an alien and brought me here for some reason. Trying to think of a way out, my thoughts were interrupted by the sound of heavy metal footsteps coming in my direction. By this time my leg had begun the healing process and it was, quite literally, painfully noticeable.

It was getting closer every second, with every step it sent my fight or flight instincts farther and farther into gear. It was when I got a glimpse of an orange metal arm that I chose flight. Quickly getting to my paws I tried my hardest to ignore the shooting pain in my leg. I was about to just start running, but stopped myself when I realised I was on an elevated structure. It was similar to the metal tables at the vet that your pet would go on, bit on a giant level. The thought kind of infuriated me but I pushed it down. Frantically looking for a way down I saw some sort of structure and figured it would be good enough.

Hopping onto the structure, pain shot through my whole body and I felt my leg break again. Tumbling forward, I fell off of the strange structure, yelping as I face planted. Suddenly, the orange plated alien was right next to me and the only way I could explain its actions is by, calling it a mother hen. It was obviously trying to see if I was okay, but I still remembered the destruction theses creatures were capable of and the fact that with one wrong move I could possibly piss it off and it could easily kill me in the blink of an eye. 

I noticed it's giant metal hand coming towards me and I started to panic. Frantically trying to get away the only sounds heard were panicked huffs and the tick, tick, tick of my claws on the hard floor. I still couldn't stand but believe me, I tried my absolute hardest to paddle myself across that floor away from the weird robot.

When it's hand touched my black fur, my whole body froze. If I moved one muscle it could squish me, I could die at a fleeting thought by a superior being. But I was quickly surprised by the feeling of it moving it's ‘surprisingly’ warm metal finger across my side. I looked up at it's face and flinched at it's intense gaze, quickly looking away I glanced around the room, looking for some sort of exit. When I finally found one I fell into my mind thinking of an escape route and how I was going to get out of the grasp of this metal being. It seemed my unspoken prayers were answered when I heard a strange sound which caught the attention of the alien. That's when I made a run for it.

At this point the pain which was excruciating was now barely noticeable under the thought of freedom. I wouldn't be surprised if every being inside the base could hear the ferocious ticking of my claws on the hard floor. In my blind dash in the back of my mind I caught a glimpse of a couple people, and I smelled a familiar scent but I couldn't place it in my mind under the intense concentration. 

I'm not sure how, but I ended up outside on a highway. When I looked behind me I saw the highway leading right into the side of a cliff. I didn't think much of it as I saw how late it was, I needed to get home. I babied my leg on my trek back home, it was pretty easy, with my animalistic instincts it was practically an instinct to know where my home was.

I got to the back door, when I didn't hear snoring I started scratching at the door. My dad lazily walked over to the glass door and still not seeing me opened the door and looked out. When he did see me, it woke him up a bit, his eyes widened and he opened the door wide enough for me to enter. I carefully hopped through the doorway and padded my way upstairs. When we got this house I changed the doorknob to a handle so I could open it on special occasions like this one. 

Oh, when werewolves are hurt in either human or wolf form you have to wait out the healing process. I guess you could shift but it is extremely painful and could take longer to heal. I walked over to my full body mirror and looked at myself. I was disgusted to see that some of my fur was stuck together because of blood in odd places. It was all matted and I really needed a grooming, but I didn't have anyone to help me, and I know my dad wouldn't feel comfortable enough to do that. 

I internally sighed and walked down the hallway to the bathroom and managed to turn on the shower. Carefully I stepped into the tub under the stream of water and I used my tongue to try to brush out the fur. Once done with my shower I turned it off and shook, making sure I was still in the tub. 

Then I trotted over to my bed, my leg was practically healex by now, but I was too tired to shift again so I just hopped up on my bed and arranged the blankets into a sort of nest. Then laid my head on my left paw, and fell asleep.


	3. Chapter 3

I woke up in the morning and was surprised to find myself in human form, I guess I was sleep shifting again. Trying not to ponder the events of last night, I got changed and went down for breakfast. My dad was already gone, he worked the night shift and probably left after letting me in last night.

As I walked to the school with the mourning air around me, I was really on edge. Every car that drove past me gave off a false scent of alien and I was becoming frustrated. Each and every sound made me on edge. Once I got to school I headed straight to my locker. Miko, Jack, and Raf were standing in a group talking about something. The surroundings were too loud for me to hear them specifically. As I got closer I caught a fragment of their conversation.

“-Huge, I've never seen one in real life before!”

Miko was obviously excited about something, Jack nodded his head seeming interested in the topic. Raf had a look of confusion as he gave a comment of his own.

“But the last reported sighting of a wolf in Nevada was in the early 1900's.”

I tried not to react to their topic, someone must've saw me last night, either while chasing the deer or on my way home. Quickly trying to change the subject, I walked over, a fake spring in my step and smiled as I spoke.

“Hey guys! How are you all doing?”

I mentally cringed at how overly enthusiastic I was, but they didn't seem to notice. Miko was the first to answer, of course.

“Hi Lilly, we were at our friend's place and we saw this giant wolf! It was huge too, it was probably taller than my waist!”

My mind went into full gear, trying to figure out where they saw me. I know it was me because there hasn't been the scent of another wolf in those woods for decades. I tried to force my face to keep a neutral, slightly happy expression as I asked a question.

“Oh yeah, that sounds awesome, where did you see it? Was it in the woods?”

I was surprised to hear all three of their heartbeats spike. Jack's eyes widened and he stared at Miko, warning in his eyes. Raf also looked at Miko, but with more fear than warning. The Japanese girl hesitated before giving her answer.

“It just kind if ran past us, we were out in the desert with our friends.”

Jack and Raf relaxed at her reply, satisfied. I quickly realised I wasn't going to get the real story so they wouldn't be any help on that front. Smiling, I gave a generic comment and opened my locker. Glancing back at my schedule I grabbed all of the appropriate stuff and quickly ran off to class as the warning bell rang throughout the halls.

It was the second class of the day and I quietly closed the door behind me, bathroom pass in hand. On my walk down the hall I heard footsteps creeping up behind me. I could feel eyes boring into my back, staring at me. I continued towards the bathroom and was slightly relieved when I was able to pre in peace. But as soon as I was through the doorway of the restroom I felt a foot hit my calves, my first thought was that someone was trying to fold me, but as I turned around I understood.

Vince was standing there whining a little as he leaned on the wall, trying his hardest not to show the pain from his foot, I had really hard calves. I gave him a wtf look.

“Did you seriously follow me all of the way to the bathroom to fight me?”

When he didn't reply I shook my head and turned around to walk back to my classroom. I knew what was going to happen when I turned around, but I was surprised when I felt something sharp knick my lower back. My body Instinctually jumped forward away from the sharp object and I turned around to face my attacker. Vince stood with a wide stance, brandishing a switchblade in front of him. I could see a little bit of blood dripping off of the tip, in the back of my mind I wondered how far the cut was.

“You know switchblades are illegal, right?”

I started at him with a bored look, trying to provoke him. Which worked, he lunged at me with the blade and I swiftly knocked it out of his hand and stepped on his foot as I pushed him forwards. He fell flat on his face, groaning in pain. I was about to speak, but quickly thought otherwise as I heard the door of a nearby classroom open. Mrs. Allison walked out with an expression of annoyance, then she saw Vince on the ground with a switchblade next to him.

________________________________________

 

I ended up in the office, then the nurses office, then the office again. It was annoying and starting to give me a headache. I was only thankful that in human form my healing took a little longer than wolf form. If I went back to the nurses with my wound completely healed, I would probably end up being experimented on. 

Surprisingly they sent me back to class after everything was figured out. I'm pretty sure Vince was expelled which was pretty cool. It was half way through my lunch hour, but I wasn't really hungry and I just sat at a table in the corner of the lunchroom. Pretty quick I saw Miko, Raf, and Jack coming towards me and it provoked a genuine smile. I waved them over and they sat next to me. Miko saw I was wearing a different shirt and I decided to tell them everything that happened. When I finished, Miko was making comments about how I should've beat him up, giving me specifics. Raf looked thankful at the thought of never seeing Vince again, but still portraying his sympathy for me. Jack looked down right pissed, for multiple reasons.

“And they just sent you back to class! You should be home, better yet at a hospital!”

It turned out the cut had been roughly an inch deep and was diagonally across ⅓ of my back. By the time I had gotten to the nurses office the back of my shirt had become soaked in blood, but I couldn't really feel the pain. Vince had sharpened his switchblade for hours, making it as sharp as possible so it would be really easy to cut me. Thankfully for me, that ment it wasn't as painful for a certain period of time.

I looked at all of them and sighed, deciding to be more open with them, including my complaints.

“Honestly, I just want to go home. I bet if I asked I could leave early, but I would have to walk home and I really don't feel up for walking a mile and a half home.”

It was quiet for a couple seconds as Miko and Raf practically whipped their heads over to Jack, pleading looks in their eyes. Jack tried his hardest to ignore them and said something, but I was too distracted by the other two humans staring intensely at Jack to know what he said. That's when I visibly watched him cave, waving the two off him, he looked at me.

“I could ask my uncle to bring you home.” 

That surprised me a little, it just seemed like an odd suggestion. I thought it over for a bit, all of the things I came up with I figured I could deal with. Such as, his uncle secretly being a pedophile, but I have werewolf strength and I could deal with it. I looked back to Jack, who had his phone in hand, and replied.

“That would be nice, you sure he would be okay with that?”

Jack quickly nodded his head and pulled his phone to his ear, I could hear when someone on the other end picked up, but I didn't like eavesdropping over phone, felt worse than in person. I quickly turned to Miko and Raf, starting a random conversation which Miko quickly picked up.

The teen boy quickly hung up and walked back over to our group.

“He's on his way. He'll be driving a red orange ambulance.”

I nodded my head, filing the information into my mind, I was about to reply to something Miko said earlier, but she was looking at Raf with a mischievous expression. I gave her a quizzical look and she just smiled a little more. Brushing it off, I turned back to Jack.

“I don't even know his name, this is probably going to be an awkward drive.”

Jack pondered something but then minutely shrugged his shoulders.

“Just call him Ratchet, that's what everyone calls him.”

“Alright, I better get my stuff then, see you later.”

I ran to my locker and stuffed random papers and books into my backpack. Then I ran to the office and informed them that I was leaving. Quickly I made my way back to the front of the building where the lunch room was located. The trio was still at the table when I came back, before they noticed me walking in their direction I heard a snippet of their conversation.

“-ow did you get Ratchet to agree to it? Couldn't someone like Bee or Bulkhead come? Or were they on patrol?”

Miko seemed to be bombarding Jack with questions. Raf quickly noticed me and signaled them by waving to me. They appeared to get the hint, I sat down, pretending not to notice the fact that they were keeping a secret from me. Somewhere deep in my mind I knew what that secret was, but I couldn't think of it for some reason.

We talked for a while, then they had to go to their next classes. I stayed at the table, occasionally glancing out the windows, half expecting to see the ambulance. When I heard a vehicle pull up I felt hope bloom in my chest, but it was squished when I saw a normal vehicle pull up and park, someone got out of the car and walked into the building. It was when I was pondering going back to class that I looked out the window and it was like the orange vehicle just appeared.

Quickly making sure I had everything, I practically burst through the doors towards the ambulance. I could've swore the vehicle jumped at how harsh I pushed the door open. When I got closer I saw the guy behind the wheel. He had a broad build and had greying red hair, he wore casual clothes but his posture was one that demanded respect. By his face alone, you could tell he didn't like to be messed with, but something told me he had a soft side.

I started to notice something strange the closer I got. It was like my instincts were telling me not to get in the vehicle. I tried my hardest to give this man the benefit of the doubt and pushed those feelings down. As soon as I got near the side of the ambulance I took a deep breath through my nose, and instantly knew why my instincts were unsettled. The vehicle in front of me was definitely one of the aliens, and by the strikingly familiar smell of this specific one, this was the one that had pet me last night. I tried not to shiver at the thought and pondered turning around and walking back to the school.

That's when the guy rolled down his window. It was at that moment I realised the person inside the alien wasn't real, he didn't have a heartbeat or scent. I figured these aliens were advanced enough that they could hear my heartbeat, the thought gave me a small amount of amusement. I was so used to hearing when someone was scared, and now this being could probably hear my fear as clear as a sunny day.

Slowly I turned around, and my fear spiked again when I saw the fake person staring at me, waiting like a real person would. Then he spoke, but the audio illusion didn't escape me, I knew the voice was actually coming from the radio.

“You must be Lilly, You can call me Ratchet. Jack told me you needed a ride home, somehow he convinced me to take you. Now, hop in, tell me where you live and we can be done with this.”

I could tell the alien didn't want to be here. The fact that he actually mentioned Jack's name calmed me a little. Carefully, I watched the fake human as I opened the door and carefully sat in the passenger seat, adjusting my backpack so it was on my lap. Waiting for the vehicle, my heartbeat rose with every second he just sat there doing nothing. When I turned my head to look at “Ratchet” I felt like I was going to have a heart attack as he was just sitting there staring at me. I swallowed to clear my mouth and vocalised my question.

“Is something wrong?”

My voice was shakier than I liked, but Ratchet didn't seem to care, He gave me a blank look.

“You need to put your seatbelt on.”

I sat there and stared at him for a second. When his gaze didn't waver I grabbed the belt and buckled up. Then the vehicle started, the fake human didn't even pretend to start the vehicle which actually confirmed it, and made me really unsettled. I could actually feel my anxiety levels rising and I could tell an anxiety attack was coming. Trying to take deep breaths without the being your inside noticing was really hard, as soon as I knew my heartbeat was past normal I practically felt the vehicle jolt. Ratchet nearly whipped his head in my direction.

“Are you okay?”

This just made my heart beat faster and I could feel my vision going black as I started hyperventilating, I felt like I was choking and out of breath. I became painfully aware of everything around me, and when the ambulance pulled over I felt like my chest was going to explode. There was a couple seconds of the fake human shifting around, then suddenly he had his hand on my back forcing me to bend forward, telling me to take deep breaths. Slowly, my breathing evened and my attack died down. I dropped my head onto the dash and took a couple more deep breaths, then I turned to look at Ratchet again.

“Thanks, I haven't had an attack like that in years. How did you know how to do that anyways?”

He started at me with a blank expression, which quickly reminded me of who I was talking to.

“I'm a doctor.”

It was a quick flat answer, but told me all I needed to know. Before I could ask him as to why we were still sitting on the side of the road, he spoke again.

“I noticed there was blood coming from your back, do you need me to bring you to a hospital?”

I quickly shook my head, I definitely didn't want to go to a hospital, there would be so much explaining go do, and paperwork, I hated paperwork and so does my dad. 

“No, it's not that bad, I heal fast.”

Ratchet didn't ask me any more questions as he continued on his way. We soon arrived at my house and I thanked Ratchet as I jumped down from the alien. Honestly, I wouldn't have wanted a ride home from anyone else.

I walked into my house that day, with a new perspective on these aliens.


	4. Chapter 4

As soon as I opened the door to my house, I knew something was wrong. In the distance I heard Ratchet driving away as the stench of death was thick in the air. Dropping my bag, I quickly ran towards the source of the smell. The closer I got, the worse it grew, slowly I started to recognise another smell twined within the stench. Before I got to the scene I already knew what happened. Standing outside my father's room I took in a deep breath through my mouth, prepared myself for what I was about to see, and walked into the room.

There, lye my father's body, his back was slouched against the wall, the rest of his body was on his bed, limp. Colored foam was dripping from his mouth, and it stained his shirt. In his left hand was a strange bottle that was now empty of the drugs it once held. It wasn't hard to understand what he died from, with his past abuse of opioids and other types of addictive drugs. 

My father had overdosed while I was at school.

He wasn't the dad of the year, but he also could've been way worse. Maybe a little neglectful but he still treated me like a person at times, he didn't get mad at me if I came home late or when I came home in the form of a wolf. 

I stood there for a couple seconds looking at the slouched body. It was only when I felt a hot tear dripping from my left eye that I looked away. Trying to ignore the distinct smell of piss, I walked into the kitchen where the phone was and picked it up. 

Staring at the numberpad I felt more tears drip down my face and watched as they fell onto the phone. Sobbing quietly I leaned against the cold stove and slid down until I was on the floor. Resting my head on my knees I cried and let it all spill out. I only sobbed harder as I felt the pull of the full moon, beckoning me to shift. Slowly my sobbing faded and I felt a hole in my chest grow wider. I had no one left, both of my parents were gone and I would be sent off to a foster home.

Slowly a thought wormed its way through my clouded thoughts. What if I ran away, then I could live free and I wouldn't have to worry about school or freaky robots. If I went North I could probably find a pack of werewolves willing to take me in. I've heard about actual wolf packs taking in werewolves as their own, or I would forever be on the run, with the bitter taste of “freedom” ever constant on my blistering feet.

I picked up my head and looked at the phone again. Slowly I began to dial 911 and paused before pressing the call button. Taking a shaking breath and holding it, I hit dial.

The other side only rang once before it was answered and the operator spoke, by the voice I guessed it was a woman. I sat there just staring at the phone, not saying anything. When the woman said something else, I sobbed and by the person's response she heard. Quickly, I hung up the phone and stood, setting it on the counter next to the stove. I knew from the fact that she heard my sob that someone was going to come. Feeling the pull of the full moon again, I ran upstairs to my room, grabbing my backpack on my way and emptying it. Grabbing a few items of clothing I thought about what I was about to do.

Lost in thought, I walked back to the kitchen and raided the cupboards, stuffing granola bars and other packaged foods into the bag that held my clothes. As soon as I zipped my backpack closed I heard sirens in the distance, looking out the window, I could see the faint flashing of red and blue lights. I felt my heart rate rise as I threw a strap of my backpack over my shoulder and quietly snuck out the back door which headed straight to the forest. Quickly I realised that would be the first place they would look for me, it was obvious that I was the one to call, and there was proof throughout the house showing I was running away.

I decided to continue in the direction for a long time, running through the thick untouched forest. Then, I stopped, listening to make sure no one had followed me. Once I was satisfied, I stripped down, quickly stuffing the clothes into my backpack. Stretching, I quickly let the shift happen, this time I felt even more relief at being at my primal prime. One thing about shifting on the full moon made you even more happy, not quite sure why.

Grabbing the strap of my backpack in my teeth I made a right turn and continued. I kept walking in this direction for a long time letting my instincts lead me. I almost didn't notice when a scent crept into my nose. Suddenly I changed course to follow the source of this scent. It wasn't very distinct, just something that caught my attention, and if it did that in wolf form, than I trusted it. 

Mindlessly following it, I didn't even realise when I came upon the highway and followed it, walking in the ditch out of view. It was roughly 11 o'clock when I finally realised where my nose was leading me. I noticed it only when my wolf brain became confused. I had followed the highway until I came to a literal wall, the road just ran into a cliff wall.

Quickly smelling the air, I realised what the scent was from, I had followed Ratchet's scent. That was when I realised exactly where I was, behind that cliff was the base of operations that Ratchet and the other aliens use. Slowly and carefully I started backing up, I only knew one of the aliens that reside within the building. Even then, it wasn't one that I fully trust, not yet.

After backing up a few steps my ears twitched as I heard the sound of rough metal scraping on a smooth hard surface. Directing my attention to where the sound was coming from, my eyes widened as I saw the smooth cliff face opening. As soon as the door was wide enough for a good draft of air to flow out, I got a huge whiff of the metal giants. By how strong it was, I knew one was right behind the door. 

Making sure I had a tight grip on my backpack I turned the other direction and ran parallel to the highway, away from the base. A surprisingly quiet motor started behind me and it just urged me to run faster. But my human mind quickly reminded me that if I continued in this direction I would run into the people looking for me. This caused me to slow down to think of a solution, my mind and instincts battling each other, leaving my body confused without clear orders.

At this point I was just standing on the left side of the highway, staring mindlessly off into the distance. My mind was only brought to the present when I realised my backpack was slipping from my loosening grip. Dropping it, I looked for a new spot to hold it so I didn't accidentally shred the bag. I was so lost in thought that I was only brought back when I saw the light beam upon me from a motorcycle that had just seemed to slam on it's brakes.

Whipping my head around, the backpack somehow completely forgotten at this point, I stared at the vehicle which had somehow gotten no more than 15 ft away from me before it stopped. I calmed ever so slightly at the thought of how small this alien must be if it became a motorcycle. It's that reason that notified me that it actually had a human passenger, and as soon as I smelt the human's scent, everything fell into place.

I knew that human's scent well, that's because the human was Jack. So, that means he knows about the aliens, because I mean he was in their freaking base, and the only vehicles I've ever seen him in (or on) were aliens. Also by the way the other humans were reacting while talking about Ratchet, Miko and Raf also knew. 

My wolf side flew into a blind rage, I had just started to see this group of humans as some sort of pack, and they were all lying to me. Somehow, the thought that they had betrayed me flew through my mind. I tried my hardest to reason with the enraged emotions, but to no avail. My anger just continued to grow and I couldn't stop myself from taking a step forward. Unbeknownst to me, I was growling and had been for a while now.

I could hear Jack and the motorcycle communicating at this point and human fear was slowly seeping in the air. I wasn't even sure if the aliens could feel fear, but I didn't really care at the moment.

Me and Jack locked eyes for a couple seconds which enraged my wolf even more. Suddenly, before I knew what I was doing, I lunged.

It was only when I felt myself flying through the air, with my fur rippling in the wind, that my mind cleared. There was no way I was going to attack and kill a human, let alone one of my friends. I was able to get a glimpse of fear on Jack's face, then I dove snout first into the road. I was stunned and confused as I slowly brought myself back to my feet. I know I was headed straight for Jack, there was no way I had been so off that I landed face first on solid asphalt.

As soon as I was able to balance myself back out, I understood what happened. Before me stood a blue alien with pink highlights, it looked feminine in it’s build and posture, but I wasn't sure if they had genders. Jack was positioned behind the robot which was holding its arm pointed towards me. It's arm kinda looked like it had become some sort of cannon or gun.

I heard it speak, but I wasn't quite sure if it was to me or Jack, he didn't seem to show any sort of response so I figured it was to me. Hoping the robot didn't realise I could understand it, I stood there just staring at the alien's leg like appendages. When no one reacted to my lack of response, I turned around and quickly remembered my backpack. Carefully listening to the beings behind me, I grabbed the bag again (I didn't adjust it because that would've been even more suspicious). As soon as I was about to trot away from the road I heard the giant doors opening again.

Stopping to debate on if I should turn around or keep going. I smelled Ratchet's scent, which urged me to turn around and face him, my bag dragging on the ground as I did so. As soon as I saw the robot I regreted my choice. I knew earlier that this Ratchet was the one that had visited me while in wolf form last time. But having the proof in front of me was just a little unsettling. And by the expression on the robot's equivalent of a face, it recognised me.

Ratchet pointed at me and said something that, for some reason, I didn't quite hear, but as soon as those words came out of his mouth, both Jack and the other alien looked at me. I managed to hear what Jack said in response after seeing what Ratchet had pointed out.

“Yeah, that is Lilly's backpack. What is that wolf doing with it, did something happen to her?”

That's when I knew I really messed up, now I was a target for one reason or another. My fight or flight instincts were starting to kick in, believing I was about to be in danger. Quickly I decided for my instincts as a turned back around and chose a random direction and took off running. The bag definitely slowed me down as my legs would get tangled in the straps while running tripping me up occasionally. 

Adrenaline started pumping through my veins as I heard a strange sound behind me. Then there was a bright light shining on my back, and I heard a bigger and vehicle coming up behind me. I could only guess it was Ratchet coming to kill me and grab the backpack in my grasp. Thinking fast, I took a sharp left to lose him or at the very least give myself a bigger gap, farther distance meant more time.

Unfortunately, that move had ended up being my demise. Apparently the motorcycle had been behind Ratchet, and they can turn a lot sharper than an ambulance can. As I was running I watched in horror as it partially transformed to where it had this weird arm like appendage coming out from where the seat was. It raced up next to me, before I had a chance to dodge, it's hand grabbed a hold of the scruff at my neck and held me up. It somehow shifted the rest of its body around the exposed arm and pretty soon Ratchet was standing next to the smaller alien, looking down at me still in its grip.

I could tell there was some sort of silent communication going on as the two looked to each other and back at me occasionally, without sound. Quickly I realised Jack was nowhere to be seen and I became concerned. Had he gotten hurt somehow, was it my fault if he did? Their silent communication seemed to stop when I started wriggling in the blue ones grip. That's when I noticed something off in the distance.

There were lights coming towards me again, although these ones were a lot brighter and it had a very loud engine. Scenting the air I almost didn't notice when we started moving towards the large vehicle. Pretty soon I was able to see what it was because of my nocturnal eyes, and as soon as I saw it, instinctual fear ran through my veins.

It was the same semi that hit me, it was blue that faded into red, the only difference was that it wasn't coming at me at top speeds and I was at a slightly higher altitude than it.

The passenger side door of the semi opened and I breathed a relieved sigh as Jack hopped down from the elevated cab. I pitied the human as he was practically blind, it was overcast and tomorrow it will rain. My attention was brought to the semi as it started to make the weird mechanical noises that signified it was changing forms.

I stared in awe as it slowly became the biggest alien I have ever seen. Once it was at full height I was terrified, don't get me wrong, but the first thing that came to mind when looking at its head was a unicorn cat. It honestly lightened my mood a little and I unintentionally relaxed. I felt the hand around me relax as well, glancing back to the face of my captor we made eye contact as it looked back at me.

I opened my mouth in a yawn as everything started to catch up to me. Then, I stopped, as I realised I didn't have my backpack. Frantically I started looking across the ground and when I didn't see it anywhere I tried my hardest to squirm out of the grip of the metal being that was currently holding me. As soon as I felt some sort of give I pushed as much as possible, I didn't even care that the fall would probably break something, I needed that backpack.

For a split second I was free falling, straight towards the desert ground. Then, I landed on a hard metal surface, way too soon to have been on the ground. So I had been caught, but I looked down and became confused at how much larger this hand was than the last one is was in. Slowly following the hand up to the arm then shoulder. I didn't have to follow it farther because the silver and blue gave it away. It was the large semi that caught me, I laughed internally at the thought. The semi that had hit me last night had just saved me from falling and probably hurting myself.

I was about to try to make a run for it again when I saw its other hand slowly come up to cup me in place, like a butterfly or beetle. I knew I wouldn't be able to break out of the grip of this behemoth, so I sat down and listened. It took a little bit but I was able to pinpoint Jack's scent and I jumped a little when he spoke, forgetting about the fact that vocal communication was a thing.

“This is definitely Lilly's backpack, and it looks like she was planning on running away.”

There was a strange silence as they all started back towards base. I heard the shifting of Ratchet and the other alien outside my cage, and I rocked ever so slightly as the semi bot started on its walk, probably back to the base. By the sounds around me I guessed Jack got into Ratchet, that makes sense because he had a backpack and it would probably be a hassle on a motorcycle.

I felt my eyelids drooping and I tried my hardest to stay awake, but slowly I brought my front end down to the robot's palm and I shifted my back legs into a more comfortable position. Resting my head on my front paws, I fell asleep almost instantly.

A lot happened today.


	5. Chapter 5

Something was wrong.

I quickly opened my eyes and got up, mentally thanking whatever god that I hadn't shifted while I was asleep. Scanning the surroundings I felt the human part of my mind start panicking. I was in an unfamiliar room, the ceiling was too high and the walls too smooth. I didn't even have to scent the air to know where I was and what I would smell. There was no doubt in my mind that I was somewhere in the alien's base.

Somehow I just knew that I had slept for a long time, somewhere between 12 hours to 2 days, I wasn't quite sure. I sat there studying my surroundings trying to think of anything that could be useful in this situation. Then, I caught a strange and concerning smell, it was old but I could definitely tell there was that strange explosive liquid in this room at one point. I'm pretty sure it was the alien's blood, but the stuff that causes the explosions has the same smell, a long with the stuff they drink.

I carefully circled the room, smelling the floor for anything, any sort of smell of outside which would mean there was a gap in the wall. I got to a strange panel on the wall and stopped, there were voices on the other side, and I got a whiff of Raf.

“-ally don't want to do this now, I have to do my Spanish homework, I got an A- on my last report card.”

I was wondering who he was talking to, then I heard Miko before I caught her scent.

“Oh come on! You can do that some other time, right now we're playing hide and seek with Ratchet.”

Raf was about to complain, but stopped and I could hear someone yelling, probably asking where the two had gone. I could very faintly hear Miko's heart rate increase on the other side of the giant door. She must've whispered something into Raf's ear because I couldn't hear what she said, but I could hear the classic s sound of whispering.

Then there was some sort of rushed shuffling and I heard grunting. Becoming confused and intrigued at what they were doing I came closer to the door, jumping so my front paws were on the wall. I lowered my head closer to the crack and became confused when all I could hear was their breathing. Suddenly I heard a loud thunk, someone jumping onto the ground, than the doors started opening.

Not expecting that to happen, I jumped back and continued slowly backing up, crouching down to try and make myself less visible. It wasn't necessary as Raf was quickly pushed into the room, his glasses falling off. Miko followed after him, running through the doors, turning towards the wall next to door, took of her left shoe, and threw it at the panel/button that I hadn't noticed before. The door started closing behind her and the panel started sparking, knowing what that meant, she ran to Raf who was looking for his glasses while making frustrated grunts. Pushing the smaller boy to the ground away from the panel about to explode, she dove after him quickly throwing her hands over her head.

The explosion was underwhelming to say the least, there was just a loud fizz, and then it stopped. Miko lifted her head and looked at the fried button and smiled to herself.

“Oh, we definitely win this round, there's no way the Hatchet will find us.”

I had to stop myself from snorting at the girl, she was definitely a 'shoot first, ask questions later’ type of person. Carefully, I watched from the corner I had backed myself into as Rag finally found his glasses. I cringed when he put them on, the square room we were now trapped in was completely empty, and all they had to do to spot me is look in my general direction.

Holding my breath, I waited for one of them to spot me, this was the moment I realised if I was a normal wolf, they probably would've been attacked now. It was only after Raf adjusted his glasses that he noticed this grey fluff ball with black spots. Miko began blabbering on about something, but the boy quickly stopped by frantically grabbing her arm, not taking his eyes off me. She turned to him slightly annoyed, about to ask him what was wrong. As soon as she saw how he was intensely staring in one direction, she turned to look at what he was seeing.

Once her eyes saw me, Miko’s eyes widened and she took a couple steps forward in fascination. Raf, seeing her walk towards the wolf rather than running away, looked at her like she was cooked. He frantically began to whisper under his breath.

“Miko, that thing is a wild animal strong enough to kill both me and you without breaking a sweat. Please don't do anything stupid.”

The Japanese girl payed him no attention as she slowly got closer and closer to me. I could tell Raf wanted to pull her back, but didn't want to aggravate me. I will admit, the whole situation amused me, I wasn't going to harm them, but they believed I was some rabid animal. And jeez, Miko would just approach some feral wolf, I'm surprised she hadn't been mauled by a bear or aggravated biker yet.

I let her get about 10 ft away from me before I decided to move. I had laid down some time when Raf was looking for his glasses. Standing up, I felt a tickle in my nose and sneezed. I had to prevent myself from snorting in laughter when she fell onto her back in fright. Deciding to go the full mile, I walked up to her, my wolf side wanting to make sure she was okay, and I started licking the side of her face. 

Now I'm human form I would've been a little disgusted by the thought of liking someone's face, but my wolf instincts override those feelings. I felt a little hurt by all of the fear pouring out of Miko when I approached her, and the large amount of emotion flowing from Raf as well.

But as soon as I had shown Miko that I wasn't going to hurt her, she started laughing. What she did next was something that surprised me, I quickly realised it shouldn't have. She sat up and started running her hands down my fluffy black side. It felt weird, but if I'm being honest, it wasn't a bad feeling at all.

I wasn't pet in wolf form often, and when I was pet it was when I was back in Wisconsin by fellow werewolves or my mother. My dad hadn't tried to pet me as far as I know, and the last pet i've ever had was by Ratchet, and it wasn't really the best example of a pet. 

Before I knew what I was doing, I closed my eyes and leaned into her hand. I smelled happiness radiating from her and I also realised Raf's fear was starting to dissipate. I opened my eyes and looked over to the small boy. Carefully, I walked away from Miko, and had to stop my inner wolf from whimpering from the lack of contact. 

Slowly, I approached Raf, and not in a stalking type of slow, more like a casual walk. I could hear his heart rate spike and had to stop myself from becoming protective over him. Once I was right in front of the boy, I turned to the left and layed down at his feet, making sure part of my back actually ended up on his feet. I turned my head upside down to look at his reaction, I felt my ears flop a little. Raf looked at me in a slight confusion and I could smell a little amusement coming off him.

Slowly he reached his hand down and watched my every reaction as he touched my side, his hand practically disappearing within my thick coat of fur. When he realised I wasn't going to hurt him, he began to relax a little and ended up sitting on the ground, continuing to pet me. Miko had walked towards us at some point, but at the time Raf was rubbing behind my ears so I was in too much bliss to notice.

For a while we sat there just enjoying each others company, occasionally Raf would say something along the lines of “this wolf is beautiful” or “how is it so calm?” And Miko would just agree while she played with my ears or tail.

Suddenly, I heard a bang by the door and I jumped up, taking a couple steps towards the opening door instantly ready to protect the humans behind me. When I saw the doors being pried open, I tried my hardest to figure out which alien it was before I attacked. But once I saw the red/orange metal, I calmed down, but I still stayed in front of Raf and Miko to calm my wolf's instincts.

I could hear Ratchet mumbling something about faulty doors and human children before he was able to fully pry open the doors. I really hoped the ambulance wouldn't see me and think the kids were in danger, but I also believed that was too much to ask for.

As soon as he saw me, it was almost like he was going to try to close the doors again, but then he spotted Miko and Raf. It seemed Miko had the same thoughts as me as she quickly tried to convince Ratchet that I wasn't a threat.

“Don't hurt it, we're friends.”

I felt like the girl's IQ dropped when she said those words. Ratchet didn't seem too impressed either. The giant was about to say something when, surprisingly, Raf chipped in as well.

“Please Ratchet, this wolf hasn't shown any hostility towards us, only when it believed we were about to be attacked. Look, it won't even care if I gave it a pet.”

Raf practically stunk with hesitance and fear as he reluctantly made his way towards me, the only reason I knew he was coming towards me was because of his footsteps and fast heart rate coming closer to me. I decided to keep my sight on Ratchet to keep up the facade while Raf ran his small hands through my fur again. Slowly, his pets began to calm my wolf and I started to relax. Deciding to trust Ratchet, I turned to face Raf and rubbed up against him, giving his face a lick occasionally. The alien seemed to be confused by these actions, but decided I wasn't a threat. I quickly felt the air shift aground the being though and knew he was about to yell.

“How could you be so ignorant! You would just run into any old storage room and decide to make friends with the captive. I give up, humans are too confusing”

I felt pride coming off Miko, but Raf was disappointed, probably in himself by his expression. Feeling sympathetic, I gave him another face lick and carefully nudged him forward by the top of my head. When he got the hint, I followed him when he ran out of the room to find Ratchet who had left after his exclamation. I could hear Miko running after us, telling us to wait up for her.

Once we got to what I guessed was the center of operations, I saw this big balcony with stairs leading up to it. There was a tv with a couch chilling up there, it looked like a nice hang out. Looking at the rest of the room, the ceiling was even taller in here and there were a lot of strange contraptions, one of them looked like a computer, while another looked like it might be a portal. I watched Miko run up the stairs towards the balcony, but I followed Raf who was hesitant approaching the alien who was standing in front of the computer like things.

In the distance I could hear Miko talking to someone and it caught my attention, was there someone else I hadn't known about? But then I heard Jack's outraged voice. I wouldn't be surprised if she was talking about the wolf they “found”.

Sure enough, I watched as two heads peaked over the railing and looked down at me. I was standing next to Raf and Ratchet who had fell into conversation. I looked up to them and saw Jacks fear, I internally flinched and made sure he was still watching me as I quickly brushed up against the smaller boy. I hoped it would show him that I wasn't going to act feral. What aggravated me was when Miko suddenly changed the subject.

“Did you hear about the old man that overdosed? They won't give out his name, but apparently his daughter ran away after calling the police. I heard it was someone in high school, who do you think it could be?”

I wasn't surprised that the news got out so fast, it was a small town and that meant news traveled fast. But it still felt like a slap in the face, an unexpected reminder of my father's death.

My tail unconsciously began to droop beneath my legs, ears folding down as well, almost pinned to the top of my head. I looked over to another of those weird giant metal table things and slowly walked over to it. Making sure no one was watching me, I went underneath the “table” and curled into myself, trying my hardest not to shift underneath my intense human emotions.

Wolves and humans mourned the loss of loved ones in two completely different ways. The human way involved a lot more emotion and tended to drown out the wolf side's way of mourning.

I sat there for a while, trying to prevent myself from shifting, so I decided to listen to Jack and Miko's conversation more.

“-definitely planning on running away, she even packed food, and I have no doubt that it was Lilly, I saw her wear these clothes before.”

“But you've only known her for like a day and a half, how do you know they're her clothes? Were you stalking her, oh! You like Lilly don't you, I have to tell Raf!”

“No Miko, I don't like Lilly, as a friend yes, but not like that. Anyways, I know it's her shirt because she wore it yesterday, and she must've been in a rush while packing, it's still dirty, see there's her dog's hair on it.”

That confused me, considering I didn't have a dog, my attention peaked, I crept out from underneath the “table” and silently ran up the stairs to the balcony. Sniffing the air once I got close to the bag I became even more puzzled as I didn't smell anything out of place. Then, out of the corner of my eye I saw the hair that Jack still held in his hand, he had continued talking to Miko, but I stopped paying attention. They were both too lost in conversation to notice me come up. The hair in Jack's had was a small strand of my fur, it must've got onto my shirt when I slept in wolf form last.

Remembering about how my father let me in that night, I got lost in my mental turmoil again as I was flooded with emotions and tried to push them down as I felt a forced shift coming again. So lost in thought, I didn't notice when Miko noticed me, it was only when she started walking towards me that I noticed. Looking up, I gave her a canine smile and forced my tail to wag.

I could tell Jack was a little freaked out by the thought of me silently coming up without him noticing. That type of silence can be deadly, one part of wolves being deadly predators. Trying to get the teen to open up to me a little bit. I slowly walked up to him, trying to show him I wasn't a threat. I sat down at his feet facing him, and looked up to his face, breathing through my mouth. Waiting for his reaction, I wasn't surprised when he just started back at me. Trying to get him comfortable enough to pet me, I carefully brought my head forward and nudged his hand with my nose a little, encouraging him to pet me.

This just caused him to back up and jerk his hand away from me in confusion and fright. My wolf whimpered at his response and I backed up a little, deciding to just give him some more space so he feels comfortable. Miko, who had watched the whole interaction, sighed at Jack and walked up to me. Running her hand through my thick fur, I almost didn't catch what she said because she started scratching a particularly itchy spot by the base of my tail.

“Have you never had a dog before, it was obvious she wanted you to pet her.”

Jack looked at her in confusion.

“How do you know it's female? And no, i've never had a dog, if I'm being honest, I'm not a big fan of them.”

Miko gave him a blank stare.

“I just feel like it's a girl, and I'm sticking with it, and by your reaction that's obvious, are you scared, huh, scared of a little puppy?”

When she said puppy she ruffled the top if my head, making my ears flop around. It was almost blissful, really close to the feeling of someone scratching my ears, I really hated that I had a weak spot, but it's not like I could help it. I watched Jack roll his eyes at the girl, but he still looked at me with a small amount of fear in his eyes. I could tell he really wanted to gather the guts to get close to me, but I wasn't going to push him.

I saw as his eyes wandered to my fur coat and cringed at how much fur I was shedding. It was floating in the air, stuck on Miko's shirt and pants, it was also across the floor. Then, I watched his eyes widen as an idea came to his mind.

Jack quickly moved over to my backpack again and pulled out the shirt that supposedly had dog hair on it. Plucking off a few hairs, he carefully studied them and looked back at me. I just looked back at him with innocent eyes, finally understanding what he had connected.

He carefully walked over to me and held up the hairs in his hand, comparing them to the fur on my back. Then he pointed out his findings to Miko.

“The hair on Lilly's shirt wasn't dog hair, it was wolf hair, specifically, this wolf.”

I mentally applauded the human, way to go captain obvious. I really wanted to say something sarcastic, but I just sat there like the non sentient creature they believe I am. Miko gave Jack a look that said “of course stupid”

“Well yeah, wasn't it carrying Lilly's backpack, its fur should be all over the thing with how much she sheds.”

To prove her point she brushed her hand against my fur and I cringed at the feeling, I really hoped no one ever did that again. But of course, I watched her hand dramatically drift through the air after picking up a bunch of my fur along the way. Making even more of my shed float into the air, Jack shook his head at her.

“No, the backpack was closed, and even if it had been open the shirt was in the middle of everything, I would've seen the fur on the other stuff first.”

Both Miko and Jack looked at me as the female figured out what the other teen was getting at.

“So that means, she and Lilly saw each other before.”

Jack was going to correct her grammar but decided against it.


	6. Chapter 6

My attention was quickly taken away from the two teenagers as I heard light footsteps running up the stairs. I watched as the small boy practically threw himself over the last stair and caught his balance, an alarmed expression was portrayed on his face.

“It's official, Lilly's gone missing, it's on the news. Apparently her dad overdosed, and she ran away after contacting an emergency line, she's been gone ever since.”

Jack and Miko looked at each other before looking at Raf again, I quickly started to scratch my left ear with my hind leg.

“We kind of figured that out already, not that her dad was the one that overdosed, but that she ran away.”

As Jack said that, he lifted up my backpack to prove his point. Raf gave him a look that managed to portray the whole sentence of “I know, I'm just saying its official now because it's on the news”. Miko stopped paying attention to the two boys and was looking somewhere in the rest of the giant room. I stopped scratching myself to look at what had caught her attention. 

I immediately became uneasy as I saw the portal looking structure start glowing blue, it kinda looked like a Nether portal from Minecraft, but blue instead of purple and black, also it was circular. I watched as metal suddenly came through the portal, a solid wall suddenly becoming jagged as the motorcycle and a bulky dark green one came through. Before any of them could see me, I jumped behind the nearest object trying to hide myself, I ended up crouched behind the couch nervously listening to everything the aliens said and did.

"Yo Bulkhead! How did patrol go? Can we go dune bashing now?!"

Cringing, I tried to move farther away from Miko so I wouldn't be noticed by this "Bulkhead". I heard shifting of heavy metal and suddenly the sound of a vehicle door opening.

"Sure, it will be nice to get out of the base without having to work."

Miko dashed down the stairs so fast that I was surprised she didn't fall face first down them. The sound of pattering feet was followed by heavy metal playing on a radio before being drowned out by the door closing. I quietly released a breath I was holding, but continued listening in to the other machine in the room. Jack and Raf must've noticed that I was uncomfortable about this new alien's presence, as the older teen directed it's attention towards something called "decepticons".

"So, what's the update on the decepticons?"

I didn't catch anything else from their conversations as I suddenly felt an intense stare from behind me. Slowly turning around, making sure I didn't make any sound as I did so. I was greeted by the sight of Ratchet staring at me, it seemed like he was trying to communicate with me in some way, but I didn't know what he was trying to convey. Frustration managed to creep it's way on the metal face of his and he glanced at the motorcycle as he inched towards my position, his chest level with the balcony.

Taking one more glance towards the blue alien, he quickly reached over the balcony and laid his hand palm up in front of me. I gave him a careful look over, and decided to cooperate. Stalking towards the edge of his head, I looked over to where Jack and Raf were, when I knew they were fine, I leaped onto the giant metal hand and was surprised to find it warm on my paws. Before I could ponder the anomaly of warm metal, I was cupped from above and below as he brought his other hand over me as he slowly brought me down to his waist.

I felt him pause around me and guessed the alien was making sure no one noticed him, then he started on his way. The longest journey is one where you don't know where you're going to end up. It felt like an hour before he stopped walking. But once he had, I realised it was just a couple of minutes. Once he lifted the hand which was on top, I knew exactly where we were. I didn't even have to look over his hand to see the environment, no, it was the smell, specifically, scent.

I knew my scent, every werewolf knew their own scent without even having to have smelled it before, it was almost like an instinct. This was the room I was in when Miko and Raf decided to play hide and seek. Cringing as I realised I was probably going to get locked in here again, I turned my attention to the orange and red alien who was standing over me. He was looking at the door and back at me, that drew my attention to said door and I saw what he had been looking at. The metal had been bent and warped by when he pried them open, trying to get to Raf and Miko. Both feeling and hearing him sigh, which was practically just air blowing through his inner workings by the sound. He glanced down and looked into my eyes, searching them, for what, I wasn't sure, but apparently he found what he was looking for as he turned around and walked back to where we were previously.

He didn't hide me this time, just cupped his bottom hand in a way to ensure I didn't fall, and walked down the halls. Something must've been on his mind, or the robot equivalent, as he slowed his walking and stared off in the distance. I quickly understood why, as I heard more voices from the main room of the base. One of them I recognised as the semi that had hit me, the other one was completely new to me. As we got closer I heard some of the strangest sounds. It almost sounded like some sort of morse code, but… well, alien.

We were practically in the room when Ratchet stopped, I could tell he was pondering over something as he dropped down his head to stare at me. I stared back at him in a way that hopefully convinced him of my non sentience. He did the machine equivalent of taking a deep breath, looked up again, and took a step forward into the room. If I hadn't trusted the alien as much as I did, I would've tried my hardest to stay away from the room filled with machines.

"-heard of these things, the can turn into, what is it now? Wha- no, Oh Werewolves! That it. It's kinda like the organic form of us cybertronians."

I should've been mad, but I was more astounded at the fact that an alien had somehow found it's way to the "mythical" portion of earth's culture. I just dumbly sat on Ratchet's cupped hand as he walked into the room. The one that had mentioned my species was mostly white with small amounts of green and orange, the other one was yellow and black, I could guess what it turned into, and it seemed to be the one using the Morse code type of language.

"Yeah, well they're just a myth, it would be so cool if they were real though, just imagine being able to turn into a wolf, that would be awesome."

It wasn't hard to tell Raf liked werewolves, by the way he spoke, it was obvious that he had thought about it on more than one occasion. I heard Jack start a sentence, but was cut off as "finally" someone spotted me. It was the white, green, and orange one to spot me first, he didn't seem too surprised, that's probably how they got on the topic of conversation in the first place. 

"There it is, why isn't it locked up, couldn't contain the organic huh sunshine?"

Honestly, if I were in human form I probably would've flipped on this robot, giant alien or not, I already didn't like this one. Ratchet just sighed and walked over to the red and blue one who had been patiently waiting for a break in conversation. I watched them look at each other and became confused when they didn't speak, but their body language suggested they were conversing. Then I remembered how they had done this before and it intrigued me, did they have some sort of internal communication, or were they telepathic?

My mind drifted away from the thought as I overheard bits and pieces of the conversation that was carried on after Ratchet ignored them. How had they got on the topic of werewolves in the first place, I could understand if Miko was here, but she wasn't. I looked over to the balcony and saw Raf engrossed in a conversation with the new alien, while Jack was looking through my bag with a determined expression on his face.

I unconsciously took a step closer to see what Jack was looking at, and nearly fell off of Ratchet's now flat hand. My front right paw had stepped right on the edge of his rounded metal finger and slipped off, causing me to fall onto my chest with my head and front paws hanging off the edge, slowly trying to pull me down. With my back legs Instinctually trying to find purchase on the smooth metal, I cringed knowing that I was scratching paint off of the robot, but if I stopped I would probably fall.

Ratchet's hand tilted towards me, making my back end fall into his palm, safe from the edge of his hand and imminent contact with the floor. Looking up to the giant's head, I was going to smile at him to show my thanks, but he had already brought his attention to the blue and red alien. Knowing it wouldn't be worth it to try to get his attention again, I looked around the room for anything that seemed interesting. After hearing my name be brought up in the conversation about werewolves I had to tune in.

"-lly was a werewolf? It would make so much sense, other than the fact that werewolves aren't real. Just think about it, how she's been gone for a day and a half now and no one has found a trace of her. Ratchet said that she seemed hesitant around him, he had even asked if she was abused or something. Also she seemed worried because I was going to get a rude from Bee and werewolves would probably be able to sense you guys."

Raf held a slightly hopeful expression, but it was obvious that he didn't really believe what he was saying. Jack decided to give his two cents, but was still distracted with something in my backpack as he did so.

"Honestly, she probably just figured out about the bots and after her dad died, she couldn't deal with everything going on in her life. I wouldn't blame her."

He lowered his voice, continuing his vocalization to himself as he looked down.

"But that doesn't explain the wolf fur, she wasn't attacked as far as I know, the wolf is too docile, at least now it is."

I watched Jack glance over to me, probably remembering how I had lunged for him earlier. He mouthed something to himself and looked back to my bag, mumbling something else. I was too intrigued to let this go, so I turned back to face Ratchet and did something that I really didn't like doing. 

I opened my snout, and barked at him.

It was always really awkward on my throat and vocal cords to cut off a howl, it always came close to hurting even. But I was glad I did it when he looked down at me, a surprised look on his robotic face. Making sure I didn't waste this opportunity, I quickly turned towards the balcony and took a careful step forward. Hoping Ratchet knew what I was asking, I looked back to gauge his expression. I saw hesitancy as he looked over to where Jack and Raf were, then back at me. Slowly, he walked over and carefully placed his hand on the floor of the balcony, I practically smiled as I hopped off of his hand and trotted over to Raf.

If I had turned around, I would've saw the distracted look that the ambulance held as he watched me walk away. As soon as I got over to the small boy, the mostly white alien that brought up the topic looked at me in interest. I tried not to notice as I glanced over at Jack who was looking at me with quelling fear. My attention was brought to Raf as he began petting me again, it felt really nice and I relished in the feeling. I heard the sound of metal footsteps but I didn't mind, feeling at ease with the small fingers brushing over my back. Happiness started to come off Rag when the alien approached through, so I gave it a glance and when I saw it I understood why.

It was the one that would pick him up from school, I'll have to keep an eye on this one, but first, I had to sit here for a little bit. I could tell when Raf was about to speak to it because his pets became less intense and he took a deep breath to supply the words he was going to pronounce.

"Hey Bee, look at this wolf! They're really rare around here and we somehow ended up finding this one, and it's docile!"

Frankly, I wasn't a big fan of the term docile, I'm not sure why, but at least he didn't say domesticated, that word triggers me. As soon as the yellow robot started "talking" I was fascinated, while being this close up, it didn't sound so much like morse code, it sounded so much more complicated than that. I heard whirls and whistles, chirps and beeps. This one used a lot more motions when they talked and they had a certain air of energy and youngness, it was almost contagious. The energy it gave off wasn't one like Miko where she talks fast and is ready to run a marathon, it was more of a happy energy, one that felt really sweet, it almost seemed out of place in this room filled with giant killing machines.

Raf and the bright robot carried on their conversation, I was blown away by the fact that he could somehow understand the alien, but out of everyone, I'm happy it was him. I glanced over at Jack and realised he was completely lost in thought, just staring off into the distance. Making sure Raf wasn't paying attention, I stalked my way over to the older teen, being careful not to give away my presence. I just had to figure out what he found in my bag that was so intriguing. I was just about to be able to see what he was looking at before a giant blue object practically smashed itself in front of me. 

Jumping what felt like a mile in the air, I yelped and tried my hardest to take in the whole object to know what I was taking on. It was when I saw that it was a hand that I realised what has happened. 

It was a small (compared to the others) feminine hand that had cut me off on my quest, the dang motorcycle again. Was she his bodyguard or something? Jack apparently hadn't noticed something and became confused by her actions.

"Um, what was that for?"

The blue machine looked at him and gave a short answer, quickly looking to me afterwards.

"The canine"

I smelled a spike of fear come from the other side of the wall like hand, I always felt so ashamed when my friends were afraid of me. Turning around, I walked back over to Raf and plopped down to his feet thinking of a way to get out, I didn't have a purpose here right now, and I felt my bladder shrinking. It would be useful if I could take my bag with me, but I doubt that would happen, thinking up an alibi for running away, I absentmindedly got up and started walking down the stairs.

Looking for an exit, I walked past something that looked familiar and quickly realised it was the exit, the one that was a part if the cliff face. Turning around to see if anyone was watching, I was a little disappointed when I didn't see anyone, so I decided to get their attention the old fashioned way. Hopping up so my front paws were on the door, I began scratching at the metal, being careful not to break my claws, but pushing hard enough that it would make sound. It took me a little bit to get used to the motion and balancing myself on my back legs, but I quickly fell into the rhythm.

I'm pretty sure the first person to notice was Raf, because he was the first to really say anything.

"What is it do- oh, it has to go to the bathroom."

I stopped scratching only when I heard the boy say that, being careful to stay next to the door, I turned around and watched him come down the stairs. But when he got to the bottom, he didn't come towards me and I became confused. Was he just going to leave me here to piss on the floor, that didn't seem like Raf. He ended up walking towards Ratchet and said something while pointing at me and the door. They ended up talking for a little bit and by the way the teen reacted, the ambulance must've said something that embarrassed or confused Raf.

Then they finished their conversation and Ratchet walked over to some sort of control panel, flipping a lever I heard a loud clunking sound and turned towards the door, backing away from it when I saw it starting to move. The sound of a robot kicked my instincts into high gear, I was smelling and seeing the outside world in front of me, and this alien was going to restrict it from me. As soon as the doors were parted enough for me to squeeze through, I bolted as fast as I could. Yelling quickly followed my actions and it just fueled the speed of which I ran at.

I ditched the highway as soon as I saw the chance, changing my course into a place with more hiding spots. I had to go back to my house and get out as fast as possible, I could only pray that the body had been moved already.


	7. Chapter 7

I went back through the forest to my house, stopping occasionally to make sure no one was following me. Listening carefully I crept towards the edge of the trees and scanned the area for any type of vehicle in the vicinity. When content with the results (there was only my neighbor's Subaru in her driveway) I jumped over the fence and carefully peaked through the window by the back door. 

There wasn't any indication that anyone was currently in the building, all of the lights were off and I didn't hear any footsteps or breathing inside. Scanning the area one last time, I shifted into my human form and opened the door, thankful that it hadn't been locked. It took me a second to get used to being on two legs for so long, I leaned against the wall as I made my way upstairs towards my room, avoiding my father's room as the smell of death still lingered. 

I tried not to get distracted by the unfamiliar scents littered throughout the halls and in my room as I picked up the small amounts of clothing left, putting on underwear and a pair of pants in the process. Surprised to find my phone still under my pillow, I opened it to see 53 text messages from different people. Jack, Miko, Raf, and all of the others were from people who sounded only slightly familiar (probably some kids in school pretending to be my friend to get pity). The only reason I left my phone behind was so I couldn't be tracked through my location on my phone (I know you can turn it off, but I just don't trust it).

Turning off my phone and stuffing it in my pants, I turned to look at the rest of my room and pondered the small amount of contents left, it wasn't that I stuffed a lot in my backpack, it was because I didn't have much in the first place. I just wasn't really into that much, and if I was, I didn't dare ask my dad to buy anything for me. Finding a decent shirt, I quickly threw it on and fixed my hair with my brush which was still on my dresser. A thought came to mind, setting the hair care product back on my dresser, I carefully made my way downstairs, only stumbling a little this time. 

Hesitantly, I smelled the air and got frustrated by my dulled sense of smell. I couldn't determine if my father was still here, or if it was just the lingering scent. Carefully, I walked closer to the room and as soon as I realised the door to the room was still open, that my father's body had been removed. Thinking about it for a second, I quickly realised there shouldn't be any sort of reason for them to keep his body at the "crime scene".

Releasing a sigh of relief, I quickly turned around and ran back upstairs. I was tempted to look at all of the messages, but someone would notice and it could draw unwanted attention. 

I thought about it a lot throughout the day, I had formed a plan involving the aliens. I began cleaning off my bed, thinking of every possible situation that could come up as I sprayed a light perfume. It smelled horrible, but not nearly as bad as some perfumes could be. I still became baffled at how so many people could find the fake smells made up of chemicals pleasing. I only sprayed it because I didn't want the smell of my fathers death haunting me as I attempted to sleep. Not caring enough to change my clothes, I plugged my phone into its charger and layed on my bed, trying to get some shut eye before school.

________________________________________

 

I woke up nearly screaming, sweat dripping down my back and my ears were ringing. The sight of my father's body burned into the back of my eyelids. I quickly realised why as all I could smell was the death. Sighing, I got up and turned on my phone to check what time it was. 5:47, I usually woke up some time around 6, so it wasn't too far off. 

Rethinking the plan and if it was really worth It, I scavenged through the remains and managed to find some more decent clothes. I got them together and took a quickly shower, relishing in the feeling of clean water washing away dirt and sweat. Coming out, I cringed as I realised there weren't any more clean towels. Standing there, waiting for air and gravity to dry me enough to put my clothes on without soaking them, I thought of the aliens.

Are they a peaceful species, did they see Miko, Raf, and Jack as more pets than equals? Why were they here in the first place, was there something here that they needed, or did they plan on taking over? Rolling my eyes at the last question, I squeezed water out of my hair over the drain and quickly got dressed.

Peaking my head out the front door of the house, I looked around to make sure no one was looking. When I saw the coast was clear, I quickly jumped through the door and jogged on the sidewalk towards the school. Dread settling in my stomach everytime someone's head turned in my direction, fearing that I would be recognised. I didn't have enough time to check the news, but I'm almost 100% sure that my face was posted all across the local news stations, with Jasper being a small town and all.

It was 6:28 by the time I got to the school, way before anyone else arrived at this wretched building. Not completely convinced that I didn't have witnesses, I scanned the surrounding area for anyone that seemed interested in what I was doing. When I didn't see or hear anyone at all, I smiled and stealthily crept into the large and thick bundle of bushes which grew in front of the building. Part of me was surprised to find a circle of space inside the bush, but the other part wasn't surprised at all, it was a high school with angsty teenagers after all. 

Sitting in the (surprisingly) comfortable bush, I silently waited until roughly 7:16, that's when the first vehicle arrived in the front of the building. (I had heard teachers and other staff park in the back of the school).

I wondered who dropped their kid off at school at this time, then I saw who it was and I had to restrain myself from growling in hatred. It was Vince, the jock hadn't been expelled, sadly. Hearing the vehicle he had come out of, start driving away, I instinctively tried to see who this person looked like. I only got a glimpse of a short head with grey hair before the vehicle pulled away. That's when I remembered Vince had his own vehicle. Realizing his parents (or grandmother by the looks of it) had probably taken his keys after catching wind of what happened lightened my mood ever so slightly.

What got me to be even more amused, was when the spoiled teen tried to open the front doors, only to find them locked. I had to keep myself from laughing as he hit the glass doors in frustration and whined as the glass hurt his hand.

The redhead hadn't done much after that and stood there brooding until 7:30. After the doors opened I heard more vehicles pull up and drop a few more kids off. Every time I got excited, thinking they were going to be the aliens my friends were besties with. It wasn't until it got near 8:00, probably 7:57 when I smelled and heard the special signs of the aliens.

Carefully, I waited until they completely stopped in front of the building. My heart was pounding against my ribcage as I waited for the teenagers (and 12 year old) to exit the aliens. As soon as I heard all three of the footsteps hurriedly running/walking into the school and the door close behind them, I jumped out of the bushes towards the vehicles. But they were already gone.

Whipping my head back and forth, looking frantically on every street for any sign, sight, or scent of them. Not getting anything, which surprised me immensely, I ran down the sidewalk in the direction I heard the aliens drive. A very faint scent caught my attention and I immediately ran after it, afraid that if I didn't catch it in time I would lose the scent. I approached the source quickly and sprinted into an alleyway that smelled of alien robot very strongly. Bursting out of the alley, I nearly had a heart attack as a red expensive looking car was on the other side, which I nearly ran right into. Taking a deep breath to calm down, I smiled as I realised by the strong smell in the air, that this red car in front of me was an alien.

Taking another breath, I looked around the surroundings to make sure no one was paying attention. Carefully walking closer to the front of the vehicle, trying not to study it too hard as not to draw attention to myself. It was mostly red, but had a white flame design on its side and had yellow rims. Once I truly believed this was one of them, I carefully leaned against a building that was closest to the vehicle's front end. Not looking in it's direction, I took in a deep breath, closed my eyes, and spoke.

"I know you're more than just a car."

Expecting more of a silent response, I opened my mouth again to continue, but the sound of metal breaking apart and scraping against each other caught my attention and cut me off. Turning in it's direction I backed into the wall of the building I was previously leaning on, trying to melt into it as fear overwhelmed me. My instincts started itching at my mind, telling me to run for my life, but for some reason I ignored it.

Once it had fully stood up in it's bipedal form, the first thing I realised was that it's frame had more sharp angles then the ones that Jack, Miko, and Raf were friends with. I started becoming uncertain when I realised it's robot eyes were a lot more unsettling than the others, this one had dark red, unlike the bright blue I was slowly becoming used to.

As soon as it spoke, I knew I had made a bad decision.

"What do you want fleshie, death?"

It's voice was a lot more brutal sounding and held an amount of hatred towards me that I wasn't used to. I wanted to turn around and run away, but my wolf didn't want me to turn my back to the enemy, that would leave me completely vulnerable towards any and every attack it might try. 

I just stood there staring at it in fear and a small amount if shock, this was the first time I was seeing them change forms while I was in human form so I could see everything a lot better. A small thought of what someone would do if they drove past this alien, what would they do, passed through my mind. Then the robot seemed to get frustrated by my lack of response.

"It seems you do want death, lucky for you, I don't like getting organic flesh and strange fluids on my pedds, so this will be quick."

It flexed it's right hand into a fist and aimed it towards me, then it's outer arm opened up to allow a cannon of some sort to protrude out of it. The whine of something powerful charging snapped me out of my shock and I jumped out of the way just in time as it missed me and burned through the side of the building I was just leaning up against.

That seemed to just frustrate it more as the robot's head turned towards me and something about the atmosphere around it changed to anger or annoyance.

"I thought you wanted to die, why else would you approach a decepticon if you didn't want to die. And I'm going to blame my miss on the fact that I'm a medic and don't use my cannons often."

I gave it a weird look as the word decepticon sounded familiar. Then I remembered how Jack asked the feminine robot about something to do with decepticons. Giving this red alien a last look over, I decided to ask it a question.

"Is it possible that you know an alien by the name of Ratchet?"

As soon as the ambulance's name was past my lips, I was in the rough metal hands of the red eyes being. It looked beyond angry and it's red seemed to grow darker on both its paint and eyes, although that could've been the light headedness that was slowly overcoming me from how hard it was squeezing. 

"Never speak of that scrap metal of a medic, he thinks he is better than me, it's only because he puts no effort into his appearance. If he worried about his paint as much as I did, I would surpass him at everything!"

It was at that moment that I realised I was (quite literally) in the hands of a mad man. The red giant looked down at me for some sort of response, but I didn't know what to say so I just nodded my head, hoping that it knew what that meant. It seemed that it did understand as is seemed satisfied with my response. Lightening it's grip on me, I took in a deep breath, wincing as my ribs were bruised from the pressure. I was about to say something, but decided against it as my lungs didn't seem ready for that yet.

The giant looked down at me with a thoughtful expression. Then it turned me over a little bit in it's hand, seeming a little satisfied, but also disgusted by what he saw, it seemed he made a decision as he nodded his head. Suddenly, he was looking me in the eye and spoke to me directly.

"I think I'll keep you as a pet."

Before I could even think to what that could mean, there was suddenly this strange liquid oval like portal thing that appeared out of thin air. Then we were walking towards it, the closer we got the more I realised it kinda looked like stars. And then, it walked through the portal, it's new "pet" in hand.


	8. Chapter 8

Going through that portal was the most nauseating thing I have ever experienced. It was so nauseating that my stomache lurched, and decided to rid itself of it's contents. As I spewed the little bit of granola and water mush onto the polished red paint of the alien I heard it practically squeal in disgust. 

"Fragging pit squishy! Is that a defense mechanism I didn't know about? That is disgusting!"

It practically threw me into a strange large square see through container as it walked away and cleaned it's hand off. It continued grumbling about something and I could hear it's tone hitch up a notch as it said something about acid on his wax. As my heart beat slowed and my adrenaline rush slowly dissapated I quickly smelled the blood of the aliens. Trying to pinpoint where it was coming from I looked around inside the container and noticed a small pool of it in one of the corners. Slowly creeping over to the explosive substance I was about to touch it and study it closer when I heard the red machine coming closer. Deciding it would be best not to mess with it, I moved away to another corner of the hollow cube.

As the giant approached, I searched it's metal face for an understandable expression, by the configuration of the metal plates I concluded that the alien was absolutely pissed with a dash of disgusted. Backing up into the wall of my "cage" as it approached, my mind filtered through all of my possible escape plans.

"Now, what to do with you. I could use you as bait for the autobots. Hmmm, maybe."

As the red being walked away to presumably speak to his higher ups, a realization quickly came to me and I pulled out my phone. I was just going to use it for checking the time and ditch it after I ran into the aliens, but it seems it might come in useful. Now, who do I call/text? It's not likely that Jack or Raf would answer because they probably didn't check their phones in class. As I quickly pulled up Miko's number I was about to type, and then I realized that probably wouldn't be the best idea. If this red one wanted to use me as bait for the autobots, and he was a part of the decepticons than I wouldn't want to give the bad guys the advantage of home base if the autobots came to get me.

Suddenly hearing hurried footsteps coming towards my direction I quickly shoved my phone into my back pocket and pulled my shirt over the rest that was sticking out. It seemed that it just went to get someone as it came back with a blue one this time. By listening to their conversation I concluded that the red one was called Knockout and the blue one was Breakdown, in my opinion they were kind of cringe names to have, especially because Knockout is presumably a medic by his response to Ratchet's name.

Deciding it was now or never, I quickly decided to shift, I'm kind of surprised that the sounds of my bones breaking and shifting didn't bring attention to me, but I wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. As soon as I finished I quickly made sure the decepticons hadn't noticed my change, and ruffled through my clothes for my phone. After I found it I set it off to the side as I quickly dragged the fabric over to their blood, hoping they suspected something happened to me after touching it. Then I ran back, grabbed my phone in my mouth again and quickly ran to the opposite side of the now wet clothes and started scratching at the wall, hoping that because it was transparent it would be thin enough for me to break through.

As soon as I felt two of my claws finally break through I quickly tilted them and ripped back as hard as I could, hoping it could cause a large amount to break off. A wave of fear washed over me as the sound of the whole wall breaking apart and crashing onto the floor caught the attention of the two decepticons. I quickly ran through the broken, what I suspect it to be, glass as the aliens started yelling at each other.

"What the frag is going on?"

"How should I know, I just came in here."

I ran and hid behind an object on the counter, watching as the decepticons quickly inspected my discarded clothing, now soaked.

"Fragging pit."

"Your squishy melted."

Knockout gave Breakdown a glare and gestured to the puddle of alien blood.

"Last time I checked, humans don't have energon. It must've used it's outer armor as a distraction and ran away. Quick we must find it before it's gone!"

So the liquid was called energon, I guess it makes sense, it does provide energy to them in a way and it's explosive. Quickly pulling myself back from my thoughts I thoroughly inspected their every movement, as soon as I saw one of them coming in my direction, I would run. 

Suddenly seeing an opportune opening, as they were distracted at a safe distance, I carefully watched them, and when I was confident, I turned around and quickly jumped down from the counter using multiple objects as cushins along the way. Once I was on the cold floor I glanced back at the searching robots and quickly ran through the open doorway, making sure to keep to the right of the giant hallways. Still carrying my phone in between my teeth, I quickly pondered more variables as to how I could escape. 

The sound of pressurised air, and heavy metal foot steps caught my attention. It was coming from the left turn in front of me. Carefully stopping and holding my breath I tried to determine which direction the giant was walking. When the steps slowly started to become quieter, I released my breath and carefully crouched towards the left corner and peaked around the wall, what I saw terrified me to the core. It was this absolutely huge robot, it was almost completely grey with purple accents. From the way this one walked and the feeling of dread seeping into my stomach, I knew I didn't want to mess with this one. I couldn't help but notice it looked like it'ss head was a bucket, but the thought was quickly cut off when the giant suddenly stopped walking for seemingly no reason. Suddenly getting the feeling that I had been found, I very carefully and quietly stepped around the corner, out of the corner of my eye I managed to catch movement a flash of a small red glow before it was cut off by the edge of the wall.

My heart was hammering against my ribcage and my tail was tucked between my legs, I almost growled at myself as I stopped a whimper from escaping. Listening intensely, I made no movement or sound as I waited to hear the decepticons next movements and determine my next actions from here. It seemed like time went on forever as the machine didn't make a sound. 

Eventually my heart beat began to settle, but then speed up again as thoughts of the giant silently bursting through the corner any second crossed my mind. Right as I was about to risk it and turn the corner to see if it was still there, I heard a ridged metal slowly drag against the ground and the heavy foot steps began again. It seemed to disregard what it thought it saw and continued to it's destination, walking away from the terrified werewolf around the corner.

My heart quickly settled back in my chest and I sat down, trying to collect myself after that encounter. Still on edge, I quickly noticed another, softer pair of foot steps coming in my direction from behind me, and from the pace if them, they seemed to be in a hurry. Frantically searching for somewhere to temperarily use as a hiding place, I spotted something similar to a ventilation system. Swiftly running over to it, I quickly inspected it and squeezed into one of the vertical gaps. Turning around, I faced the hallway and slowly backed myself further into the wall, trying to be as quiet as I could, and keep my eyes on the hallway at the same time.

It seemed to only take a minute for the alien to pass, and the red paint job and angered muttering gave away that it was my previous captor. Refusing my urge to growl in hatred, I quickly made sure no one else was coming this way and was about to go back into the hall. Then an idea came to me and I carefully turned around and looked down the dark ventilation system. The chance of being spotted was extremely slim if I used a path that my captors didn't use, the only variable I need to take into consideration is the sounds of my claws hitting the smooth metal.

Hesitantly, I took a test step forward, trying to only place the pads of my paws on the ground as quietly as possible. It seemed to work, and I took another. Smiling to myself I carefully continued down the vent as soundlessly as I could. As I came up to a juncture in the vent I suddenly heard an angered yell followed by a loud clank and a mechanical whimper.

I uncontrollably jumped at the sudden sound, and landed on all four of my paws, with my claws ticking against the metal in unison. For a split second there was a hushed silence, then it was broken by a familiar mechanical voice.

"Lord Megatron, forgive my-"

"Be quiet you fool!"

I cringed at the volume of the angered voice, it held an unholy respect that made me shake in fear but also sneer in disgust before I could stop myself. With the rapid ticking of my claws from my shaking and the sound of my sneer, I was practically done, they knew I was hiding in the vents and my exact location. Suddenly deciding that I didn't need to be discrete anymore I sprinted, not caring that they could hear the direction I was headed by the sounds of my paws padding and clicking on the vent floor.

Angered shouts were being pronounced behind me as I ran as fast as I could away from them, hoping that the exit would be right behind the next turn I take. As the sounds fade in the distance and the only noise I hear was my paws, I slowed down and continued with more caution. Carefully taking a left turn down a fork in the path, I was suddenly met with the sight if a giant mechanical bird soundlessly drifting towards my direction. Adrenaline spiking through my veins I quickly turned around and ran again, hoping to escape the robot bird that had obviously seen me as it sped up behind me.

Desperately twisting and turning through the labyrinth in the hopes of losing the threat, I suddenly ran snout first into the wall end of this ventilation branch. Harshly snorting from the preassure on my nose, I turned to face the decepticon, hoping there was a big enough gap that I could escape imminent capture. Only to be met with the bird directly in front of me, about to lunge for it's capturing move. I wasn't able to move fast enough and I ended up in the harsh and piercing talons of the bird as it took off back down the vents. 

Wincing at the pain in my sides, I tried my best to ignore it as I resorted to thrashing in hopes that I would either be released or dropped in my struggle. The only thing I succeeded in doing was making the bird hold onto me tighter as the flesh of my injury was tore from the movements. Realising that in my current situation resistance was futile, I studied the passing surroundings as I was brought towards the exit of the ventilation system.

I saw it nearing quickly and braced for the bird to ram into it, but was surprised when the cover dropped for us just before impact. Emerging from the dark cavern of the vents to the dimly lit room was still irritating to my eyes, but I didn't give them proper time to adjust as I caught a glimpse of what was waiting for us.

There was only one alien in the slightly small sized room. It was tall and lanky with plating to the angular bird that had me within it's grasp. The purple of it's metal was the same shade as the bird as well. I quickly noticed that this one had a noticeable lack of the facial components the other aliens had, and in it's place was a screen. Suddenly I was dropped onto the floor, I wasn't prepared for the release and landed harshly on my front right paw, breaking it and the joint in a sickening snap as the rest of my body landed on top of the broken appendage.

Yelping in pain I atrempted to adjust the limb underneath my body to releave the pain, but howled as I only succeeded in shifting the broken bones into a more painful position. Without even looking down or scenting the air I could tell I was bleeding as the blood quickly started to seep onto my fur chest. With my vision going blurry in pain I almost didn't notice as the faceless machine turned it's attention towards me. Trying to steady my breathing and forget about the pain through my body, I stared back at the alien as my vision slowly started to clear. Suddenly I felt a strange pressure around my tail I looked back and my heart picked up a bit as I saw the bird holding a sort of syringe that was injected into my lower back. Only able to catch a glance of the fluid before it was fully injected into my side, it was a strange shade of greenish blue, until I felt a sudden numbing sensation spread through my body.

I savored the loss of pain, until I felt it creeping closer towards my neck and head, but before I could do anything or even react for that matter, it had suddenly washed over me and I felt a sudden pressure overcome my brain and for some reason I turned to look at the faceless decepticon. Somehow I felt that the giant was trying to reassure me as it made fluid movements towards me as suddenly my vision started to fade and the pressure spontaneously popped.

Then I felt a bliss overcome me as my muscles in my neck relaxed and my head lowered itself onto the ground amd I was forced into a painless unconsciousness filled with questions.


	9. Chapter 9

I felt a very faint pressure on my side, it seemed to be moving down my body in a familiar sensation. As I slowly came back to consciousness I continued to feel the object moving across my body in the rhythmic motion. Finally I was cognant enough to recognise the pressure as it was. Someone was petting me, and by the amout of my body they could reach with one stroke, it was an alien.

Before I could panic, I mentally talked myself out of it, I wasn't in extreme danger, the alien that was petting me didn't seem to be interested in causing me harm at the moment. Also I knew my body was too tired to properly handle the sudden influx of emotion and I would probably get a huge headache and an unnecessarily high heart rate out of the deal, which frankly I didn't want to deal with.

Slowly I started to hear that the alien seemed to be speaking, to who, I didn't know. Figuring it would probably be useful if I knew the robot that was holding me, I opened my eyes but instinctually closed them as I was met with the bright rays of the morning sun. Hoping that my eyes would adjust quickly I opened them again and squinted at the form above me. The figure was too blurry to identify, but I could see a little dark purple that reminded me of the slender decepticon. But there was also a glowing line of red where the visor was, so it couldn't have been the same one.

My eyes had adjusted enough for me to notice we were moving, it was probably carrying me somewhere. Quickly the sounds coming from the giant morphed into understandable words.

"-ake sense why he chose me if he wanted to be discreet. I know he has a soft spot for this planets nonsentient organic lifeforms, but that doesn't mean I won't tell anyone, and he's smart enough to know that too. So why did he tell me to bring you to one of the humans hospitals for animals. I know he didn't tell Megatron because he would never have approved of this weakness."

After my eyes fully adjusted I looked to the decepticon in confusion. Why was it telling me all of this if it didn't think I could understand it. The giant looked down at me as it paused in it's speech. It seemed surprised by the fact I was looking at it, then I could smell a sudden change in the scent coming off of it and the shade of red on it's face brightened.

"Hey! Your awake! At least Soundwave didn't send me to give your corpse to the humans. I know you don't have the intelligence to understand me, but it's nice to get some things off of my processors every now and then. And sorry but your my only willing audience."

The decepticon continued it's banter about pretty much everything. It was probably through his fourth paragraph that things started to fall into place. Apparently the faceless robot that caught me the second, or was it third, time was called Soundwave and had a soft spot for animals. He had sent the bird robot, which was called Laserbeak, in the vents to retrieve a human but had come back with a wolf instead, and after it had been hurt he decided to subdue it and get it proper care. I guess Soundwave also punished Laserbeak after handling me so harshly.

What felt like an hour passed by before, Steve as he was apparently called, caught my attention. He had stopped walking and abruptly halted his petting, which was unbeknownst to me very soothing and the loss of it made me whimper ever so slightly, and he brought me up in his palm towards his head so he could address me properly.

"I'm really sorry about what I'm going to do, it might be a little painful and scary, I've never actually been in the position I'm going to put you in, but I have a feeling that it isn't pleasant."

He continued on about how he didn't wsnt to transform before because he didn't want to have a corpse in his vehicle mode, and if I was alive he didn't want to wake me up. Then he explained how he had to transform to make it less suspicious when he dropped me off.

Once he was done, he seemed to stare at me with an emotion that I couldn't read on his face, before he suddenly sighed, I felt a warm breeze flow over me. Then I found myself suspended in air as mechanical parts folded and split apart to contour around me. Before I could even fully gasp at the configurations of a living being happening, I was suddenly lying on the back seat of a car, the last panel clicking into place overhead.

"Whew you seem to be fine, maybe a little freaked out, but your fine and thats good."

As he started driving he stopped thinking out loud and we continued in silence. I had adjusted myself to where I could look out the front windshield between the front seats without putting too much preassure on my still sore front leg. It had healed considerably while I was unconscious, but my bones were still a little weak from not being completely healed yet. It was at this time, lost in my thoughts with the peaceful silence around me that I realised I no longer had my phone with me. I had either lost it while I was running in the vents, or it had been taken away while I was unconscious. Well there goes that plan, I was going to call Miko when I was finally alone, but that wasn't an option any more.

My ears perked up as a thought ran through my head, I would probably have to steal clothes from a local store anyways, so I could probably get a little money from the front desk if I scare the clerk enough. Then I could just use a payphone and contact her that way, my only worry is if she would answer with the more than likely unfamiliar number.

______________________________________

When we finally arrived at the animal hospital Steve called in saying that he had an injured creature that they needed to look at. He discribed the vehicle that the animal was in and the fact that he was currently sitting outside of the establishment. I could hear the lady on the other side of the phone grumble about people not giving them enough time to prepare for wild animals.

Then I saw what looked to be a vet tech walking out of the back door of the building by himself. It suddenly occured to me that Steve had failed to inform them of the species of animal he was bringing in. The vet tech was probably expecting a dog or maybe cat, I really hope they don't freak when he sees a wolf chillin in the back seat of the car.

Cringing as the door was opened I looked into the eyes of the tired male that was practically sleeping on his feet. Watching as his eyes lazily drifted around the back of the car, and focused on the black and grey fur in front of him. Slowly his eyes widened in interest, until they went completely wide and I could smell fear and a small amout of excitement wafting off of him. Hoping to prevent him from freaking out in his obviously exhausted state, I carefully brought my head closer to him, trying not to draw attention to my sore leg. 

At my movements he took a couple steps back, the scent of fear growing as excitement broke into the mix. Deciding now would be the best time to make an escape, I quickly broke out of my slow movements and jumped out of the back seat, my paws landing on the loose gravel. I small smile broke across my face as I realised there was barely any pain in my leg now, and I shouldn't collapse if I ran for it. So thats exactly what I did. Turning to my left, away from the building, I sprinted towards an open area near the buildings of the small town. 

"Hey! Get back he-" 

Leaving behind a confused and exasperated vet tech, and an even more confused and saddened vehicon. I could hear the male walk over to the vehicle, going to talk to the person that brought me over, but childishly stomp his foot as there wasn't a driver in the car. 

______________________________________

A couple minutes of running around the outskirts of town, I finally found a small clothing store. By the position of the sun in the sky I guessed it was somewhere around 4 o'clock. Hopefully there weren't many costomers in the store, I purposely chose this store because it didn't get many people. Carefully creeping into the alleyway next to the building, I glanced around the corner to make sure there wasn't anyone around to witness the crime I was about to commit. Quickly dashing into the sidewalk I made my way towards the glass door of the store. Taking a chance, I sprinted towards the door and lifting my front legs at the last minute I pushed the door open and knowing that I had to be fast I ran through the old racks filled with eyesore clothes.

Spotting a tan shirt that was around my size, I swatted it off the rack and grabbed it in my mouth. I frantically grabbed a bra that seemed to be the right size, and I was heading towards the pants and underwear when I heard the first angered yell.

"What do you think your doing?!"

Apparently the casheer didn't know that the one they were talking to was a wolf. Slowing my pace to hide better, I carefully crept my way over to the rack with some old jeans on it, the only one I could find in my size was a light pink. Cringing I lightly set the shirt on the floor and rabbed one of the legs in my mouth. Carefully tugging on the fabric to try and rock it off of the rod, I felt my teeth rip a little bit of it, but didn't care as it finally fell to the floor, the plastic hanger ticking loudly on the floor in the relatively quiet store.

"Your going to pay for that right?!"

Pulling the pants onto the shirt and bra I grabbed them in my mouth and ran over to the undergarments section. It seemed that the lady caught a glimpse of my fur as she gasped, then I smelled fear swirling in anger and confusion coming off of her.

"Okay kid, get rid of the suit and pay for those clothes, if you don't I'm going to have to call the police."

After I finally got my underwear, I quickly sprinted towards the exit, which was right next to the cash register. As my form was fully exposed to the 70 year old lady I heard her heart break into on off beat frantic rhythm as her breathing became uneven. As I headed towards her I saw her face flow through a surprising amount of emotions before it stopped on a focused and determined expression. Suddenly she reached under her counter and pulled out a .50 cal double barrel shotgun. Cocking it she was about to aim as she spoke to the supposed rabid wolf in her store.

"I didn't live 22 years in Alaska for nothin'."

Just as she brought the shotgun up to her shoulder, tilted her head down to look through the sights. I ran through the glass door, shards of the transparent solid falling around me as the woman finally pulled the trigger. My sensative ears rang at the blast of the gun, then a searing pain shot up my spine as my tail was pierced through by her shot. With my bleeding tail tucked between my legs, I ran as fast as I could out of the town, occasionally tripping over the clothes that were dragging on the ground.

______________________________________

Once I found a secluded place outside of town, I carefully assessed the pain in my tail, trying to debate on whether I should shift or if it would be too painful. Deciding it would be best to wait, I carefully shook the small glass shards out of my fur and, smelling rain in the air, trotted over to a falled over tree. Pulling myself under it to rest I layed down carefully tucking my tail to my side. Setting my clothes next to me underneath a wider part of the tree, hoping that would keep it relatively dry if it started to rain.

It took maybe 10 minutes for my tail to become comfortable enough to shift. Stepping out from underneath the fallen tree, I stretched, internally cringing at the pain still apparent in my tail, and slowly started to shift. Feeling the pain spike mid way through the shift I almost stopped but decided to keep going, I'd made it this far, I just wanted to get over with it. Once the process was finished I stood there stretching my limbs making sure if I tried to continue I wouldn't collapse in pain. 

When shifting the tail slowly retracts into my back until it stops in the tailbone, meaning every pain that was spread out in my wolf form would be concentrated on my tailbone and lower spine. With the knowing that the pain would've healed faster if I hadn't shifted, I carefully bent down to pull out my clothes that were still underneath the log.

Once I was fully dressed I picked up the plastic hangers and after taking my first step I started to mentally curse myself for failing to get shoes as I walked through the forest, sticks and other objects irritating the arches of my feet. Once I came to the opening I looked around for a trash can or recycling bin and got rid of the hangers. Sighing, I glanced around the town, I could hear a siren and by the distance of the sound it was near the store I robbed. Figuring I should probably stay away from there, especially while I was wearing the stolen clothing.

I wasn't able to get any money from the store, but I could probably find some loose change around. Sighing, I turned towards the oposite end of town from the shop, and headed on my way.

______________________________________

It was around 5:30 when I finally found a store that seemed relatively easy to get money from. Approaching it from the back I cringed at the smells around the dumpsters. This was definately a fast food restaurant, grease was caked on practically everything, I could smell old molding bread and even old juice and other foods that had gone bad months ago. 

Hesitantly I walked around the building that had vines starting to grow on the brick walls towards the entrance. I really didn't want to do this, even if it was just a dollar and I got caught it would still be on my public record and it could put a damper on any plans I have for the future. I wasn't too worried about stealing while in wolf form because it's usually hard to convince the authorities that a human had stole something when it was a completely different animal caught on camera. That didn't make it right, but it made it easier.  

As I approached the front entrance of the restaurant, I quickly smelled the scent of an alien, it must've been masked by the dumpster and scent of heavy clouds ready to burst. With the uncertainty of the giant's and morals I feared the worse. Carefully keeping an eye on all of the nearby vehicles I slipped in through the front door, behind me I heard the sound of a tyre shifting on the asphalt even though no motors were running. As the door closed behind me I was hit with all of the smells in the building, and the bright fluorescent lights nearly blinded me. It was only when I saw that the place was practically filled with teenagers that I realised I made a mistake. Of course a bunch of high schoolers would be in one of the only fast food restaurants, and almost all of them would recognise the girl that humiliated Vince. Quickly deciding I would go somewhere else, I turned around and was about to go back out the door when I heard a familiar voice yell.

"Lilly!? Where have you been."

I could hear the teen's foot steps speed walking towards me. Turning to look at Jack I saw him decked out in a KO Burger outfit, headset and all. He seemed to be worried about me, well I guess he did hear that I ran away. I wasn't prepared for all of the attention, but as soon as he had yelled my name everyone turned and looked in our direction. But their gases fixed on the strangely dressed female. Suddenly feeling self conscious, I grabbed my arm and didn't look him in the eye as I quietly spoke.

"If you want to talk can we do it outside?"

He seemed to sober up a little bit as he nodded his head. Glancing back to the casheer behind the counter who quickly gave him the okay, they headed outside. Jack started walking somewhere in the parking lot and I followed him, as he pulled off his headset and turned it off we approached a familiar blue motorcycle. Then I realised that this was the one I was smelling, and it was an autobot if I was remembering correctly, yeah this one blocked me from Jack that one time. He carefully set his headset on the seat of the blue vehicle and swiped his hand through his hair with a worried sigh.

"Lilly what happened to you? I heard about your dad, you ran away. I was afraid we would never see you again."

Shifting under the worried gaze of my friend, I nervously glanced at the dormant alien next to us. Taking in a deep breath, steeling my nerves, I looked Jack in the eyes, trying not to glance at the motorcycle. Grabbing my elbow and nervously rubbing the joint.

"I would feel better explaining everything, if our eavesdropper showed themselves."

Quickly looking at the blue vehicle to see if there was any reaction to my proposition. It didn't seem there was, until I noticed the mirror was now reflecting light in a different direction. So it's mirrors moved, was that how it looked at things in this form? 

I could smell Jack's nervousness make an impressive spike, his pupils had dialated in some sort of fear. That honestly put me on edge, what was he afraid of? Swiping his hand through his hair again he started to look at the alien but managed to stop himself.

"Um, uh, I don't really know what your talking about, do you have a stalker or something?"

Deciding that I was able to point at the elephant in the room, so I could fully address it. 

"I know Jack, I know that's not a normal motorcycle, and that there are more like it."

Suddenly Jack became serious and it made me on edge. Glancing to the alien, and back at me he sighed and grabbed his headset.

"Stay here, I'm going to clock out. I hope I don't get fired for this, and just after I finally got a raise too."

He walked back towards the restaurant, I could see his fingers undoing the top 3 bottons on his shirt as he loosened the collar. Realising that he just left me with the alien that know knew that I was aware of what it was. 

Shit, I just realised my mistake, they are probably going to ask me how I knew about them. I couldn't just straight tell them, 'oh hey you know that wolf you were messing around with, yeah, that was me'. Actually, what's one more secret? The whole time I was thinking I was staring off into space with my eyes directed at the motorcycle's front wheel. When I heard footsteps coming nearer, I was pulled back to the present and looked for the offending person. Only to turn and see, low and behold, Vince. He was a man on a mission as he stared at me, almost jogging with how fast he was approaching.

I saw Jack come out of the glass door out of the corner of my eye. By the way he stopped, I could tell that he saw Vince and was trying to find the best course of action. As said teenager finally got to his designation, I was surprised when he stopped a respectable distance and sneered at me, but I could tell there was some other emotion waiting to burst out. Deciding to get this over with, I spoke first.

"What do you want Vince?"

Suddenly a smile broke across his face as he pulled his old flip phone out of his pocket, which was already on and in the middle of a call. Cheekily he brought the phone up to his face, staring me in the eye as he spoke.

"Yeah, operator. I found the missing girl Lilly Reager-"

He continued but I immediately fell into thought. Before is could even finish a mental thought process I suddenly felt my shoulder being grabbed and pulled back. I was about to attack the person that touched me on instinct, then I realised it was a frantic looking Jack practically trying to throw me onto the motorcycle.

"Come on! We got to go."

I quickly complied, not thinking of possible consequences, and hopped onto the sentient vehicle. Vince yelling as we took off, I could hear him giving off the motorcycle's information and the fact I left with Jackson Darby. Well this can't turn out good.


	10. Chapter 10

We rode in an uneasy silence, I didn't know where we were headed, but I trusted Jack not to bring me to intended danger. I was sitting behind him, with my arms wrapped around his abdomen for stability. Minutely shifting my position every now and then, I felt a little awkward being so close and almost intimate with my friend. A fleeting thought whirled through my mind, wondering if maybe Jack had feelings for me, but it was quickly knocked down as he didn't seem romantically interested in me.

Shaking my head to try and rid my mind of the thoughts. I brought my focus on the sentient machine beneath us. From my observations this one seemed almost female compared to the others, also it was probably the shortest. So my guess is this one probably has a bit if a temper and an attitude as well. But the fact that it hadn't done anything snarky towards me now that I was aware of it, threw off my observation a bit. I guess there was that one time when I was a wolf, but it was just being protective of Jack, which I can understand.

Suddenly, I noticed out of the corner of my eye that we were coming up to a cliff face. Leaning to my right I tried to get a better view of the entrance to the secret base. The alien seemed to speed up as we got closer and I cringed, instinctively hiding behind Jack as we crept up on the entrance. He seemed to notice because he shifted ever so slightly and turned his head in a way that conveyed he was talking to me. His voice muffled by his helmet and the wind catching the sound.

"It's going to be fine, trust me."

Not having a helmet on, and my awesome hearing allowed me to understand him. I already knew what was going to happen, but I nodded to myself behind his back anyways, hoping it would convince myself that everything was going to be okay. When it seemed that we were speeding up even more as we got closer to the still closed entrance, my anxiety kicked up a little bit. I knew we weren't going to drive straight into the wall, but I watched morbid scenarios fly through my mind. Then, I heard a loud clanking as the wall evenly split and started to separate.

With my anxiety quickly throwing those scenarios out of my mind, it quickly threw another one in, as I knew I was about to formally meet the aliens for the first time. Before my brain could be properly overloaded by the possibilities, I felt the motorcycle slowing down. 

As we finally stopped and Jack held the motorbike steady for me to get off, I took a couple steps away from the alien. I knew it was about to change into it's bipedal form. Hesitantly, I scanned the room that I faintly remember from my last time here, my eyes lingering on the back of the red/orange giant next to the screens. The thought of yelling his name to get his attention crossed my mind, but was interrupted by the sound of Jack's alien finally shifting. Turning around to get a look at this one, which I knew was probably going to question me, considering how defensive Jack got when I addressed it, and found it to be taller than seemed possible, considering how small the motorcycle was. When it stood up to it's full height, it turned it's head towards me and I could see its facial features were formed into an expression I couldn't understand on the alien face. 

Suddenly I heard a shifting of metal behind me, and I could only hope it was just Ratchet because I couldn't turn away from the potentially hostile being in front of me. My wolf wouldn't allow me to do that and back down from the imposing challenge. Suddenly hearing a huff of either annoyance or tiredness, probably both, tipped me off to the identity of the machine, it had to be Ratchet.

"Jack, please tell me there is a good reason as to why you brought this human here. The base is practically infested as is."

Wow, it seemed Ratchet was more cranky than I thought, what did he have against humans? Out of the corner of my eye I saw Jack give the ambulance a partially offended look. Which Ratchet grunted as some sort of acknowledgement.

There was a silence as Ratchet waited for a reply, but right before Jack was about to speak, he did a double take as something he saw on one of the giant screens caught his attention.

Jack made a motion to Ratchet to unmute it while he kept his eyes glued to the screen. The medic sighed as he turned his attention to the screen as well and remotely turned up the volume. I relaxed ever so slightly as the smaller blue one focused on the screen as well. The feminine voice of a reporter didn't catch my attention until I heard the word "Wolf".

"it seemed to have a remarkable amount of intelligence as it hid in the clothing racks, and it seemed to be targeting specific clothing, as shown in the security footage."

I had to stop myself from gasping, I hadn't taken security cameras into consideration. I could only hope the town was as clueless about this as they were with the aliens. 

"The only witness was the cashier and owner of the store. She said it was the 2nd time she has ever used her firearm in the store."

What, the heck is that? They didn't even say much about the wolf, a creature that you practically never see in Jasper. But hey, I'm not complaining, I'm just pointing out how clueless the supposedly trustworthy media is.

"In other news, regarding the  runaway, Lilly Reager, who's father recently died from an overdose. There was a reported sighting, she was wearing baggy clothing, and seemed to be without shoes. The witness claimed she was kidnapped, and was able to identify her captor, Jackson Darby. Lilly and Jackson were last seen on a blue motorcycle. The licence pl-"

Honestly, I never thought I would ever be on the news, and better yet I was on two stories, and they were back to back. Guess I can scratch that off my nonexistent bucket list.

Suddenly I got this strong feeling that I was being watched. Snapping my head up in attention, I was met with the sight of Ratchet staring at me in a curious and confused way. Jack and the blue robot were looking back and forth between me and the medic to figure out what was going on in his mind. I quickly started to feel uncomfortable with almost all of the attention directed towards me. The worst part is that Ratchet had muted the TV at some point, so it was silent as this awkward stare down happened. 

The red and orange being gave me a strange look as he brought his attention back towards the TV again, and he rewound it until it got to the footage of me in my wolf form in the store, and he paused it at the moment I had finally gathered all of the clothing, about to leave. Then he looked back at me, and seemed to be studying something. It finally hit me when I glanced back at the paused video footage, he had noticed I was wearing the same clothing that was stolen. 

I whimpered in fear and got a slight mental whiplash by the fact I could indeed whimper in human form. Jack gave me a weird look, probably wondering where that sound came from, and why I had whimpered in the first place. I looked into Ratchet's glowing blue eyes, my wolf wanting to know if I could talk myself out of this one, or if I had to run. I really didn't want to run from the only people I had left. 

Suddenly there was a strange buzzing sound that caught my attention, and I could tell it was coming from both Ratchet and the blue with pink one. Jack didn't seem to hear the sound, so it must've been over some sort of radio frequency. Then Ratchet brought his full attention towards me, with a slightly disappointed and maybe even angry look on his face.

"How did you acquire those coverings from the wolf? How did it steal them in the first place?" 

I knew he understood I was involved in some way with a wolf, but if I played my cards right, I could possibly get him off my tail. But I know this is going to be hard, I know that telling them the truth could cost me my life, but at the same time, they had trusted Miko, Jack and Raf with their secret, which to be honest, was a lot harder to believe than werewolves. If someone had told me that giant alien robots that can turn into vehicles were living in the desert, I would've laughed at. Hey, I guess what's one more secret, am I right.

Taking a deep breath to steal my nerves, I quickly went through different ways to break the news, but after seeing how impatient the robots looked, I decided to just say it how it is.

"I am the wolf."

There was a moment when it seemed the information was settling in, and Ratchet gave me an annoyed look. The blue one seemed to be losing its patience as well.

"I don't know what you're playing at, but if you are going to continue to spew your blasphemy, you should leave now before you get a wrench to your fragile helm."

Jack scoffed at his comment a little bit, but I could tell he was contemplating what I had admitted to. I could see how he was trying to convince himself, but of what, I wasn't quite sure. The female one was giving me a strange look, almost like she believed I belonged in some sort of insane asylum, like I was a threat. I had to prevent myself from allowing my wolf side to lash out at them, I really wanted to uphold my pride, but I know only bad things would come from it.

"I wish you could take my word for it, but I also know that would be too good to ask for. If you must, ask for something only the wolf would know."

Ratchet gave me a look that said he wasn't going to participate in any of my games, but Jack seemed to be thinking deeply. Suddenly I heard footsteps running towards us, and in the distance I could hear heavy metal footsteps following. As they suddenly they skidded out from the other side of the corner, coming from the hallway. I knew who it was as soon as I saw the faint pink tips on the relatively long black hair.

"Miko, help me convince them that I'm a werewolf."

She seemed to be all for it, with her bubbly attitude and she made strange motions as she tried to describe how it worked to a very tired and annoyed Ratchet. I was slightly surprised that she didn't take it as seriously as the others, seeing as she seemed to be more spacey than the others, and she seemed like she would be the first to embrace the unexpected. I carefully walked up behind her, as she was facing the medic, and tapped her on the shoulder. She turned to me with a smile on her face, obviously excited she had someone to pull little pranks with. I gave her a small smile and she seemed to sober up at my expression.

"I know you think this is one of those fun jokes/pranks that we play sometimes, but I seriously mean it this time, I am a werewolf."

Miko gave me a confused and slightly angered look, which honestly scared me a little bit, why would she be angered. I guess I didn't notice Bulkhead and the annoying one come in somehow, seeing as they were also here. The annoying one, aka the green and white one with face fins, was the first to comment on what I had proclaimed.

"Ya right, humans having an alt mode is impossible, believe me, I've seen organic species trying to harness the concept of transformation."

Something about the way he said that, caused the sense of a challenge seep into the wolf side of my brain, and I can't back down from a challenge, especially if it's one I know I can win. So I looked the white robot into it's glowing blue eyes, and gave it a slightly sadistic smile as I mentally commanded my body to shift into the wolf it craved to become. As soon as my spine started to crack and move in, normally, concerning ways, I saw concern quickly grip their expression. Ratchet was the first one to jump to action though, believing I was in some sort of danger. It was hard, but I was able to speak through the painfully slow transformation, I needed to do it this way so they knew it was still me.

"Ratchet, I told you."

He was about to pick me up, and he was scanning me with some sort of built in equipment, I could feel so as it tingled when it went over me. I carefully turned to look at him as I restated my fact.

"I am the wolf."


	11. Chapter 11

Ratchet stared at my wolf form with such confusion that I was almost convinced that his mechanical systems had just crashed. It wasn't until he had started to move that I truly realized what I had just done. My wolf took full control before I could stop it, I turned around, and ran. 

I ran as fast as I could down the first hall, around a corner, through doorways, I didn't pay attention to where I was going, I just ran, I needed to escape the angered monsters, I don't want to be separated from my pack. I already lost my human father, I don't want to lose Miko, Raf, and Jack. The aliens are probably going to experiment on me, trying to figure out how I had succeeded in doing something all other organic species have been striving for. This actually was one of the first times I started to see myself as a monster, in Wisconsin I went to school with many werewolves, and we were all accepted for what we were, and after we had to move, I never actually showed anyone else my wolf form. Now, having seen someones response to witnessing a werewolf for the first time, I actually understood how different I was from everyone.

These thoughts whirled around my head as I ran, instinctively looking for some sort of hiding space along the way. I felt my human emotions about to burst through my canine resolve, and my eyes started to blur from tears that I was unable to shed. 

I skidded around a corner, and the first thing I saw was a little bit of blue, then, I ran head first right into the huge bipedal semi's metal leg. My head hit so hard that it took me a minute to recover, and when I was finally able to see past the spots in my vision, I was met with the sight of a concerned giant looking over me. I tried my hardest to remember what this ones name was, but it just wouldn't come to mind. Suddenly I heard it whisper something to itself, probably because it thought that a wolf couldn't understand it.

"Primus, what are you doing back here, I thought you ran away."

I had to suppress myself from huffing in agreement, I could feel that if I was in human form I would currently be in a panic attack, but the combination of my human reasoning and the fact that my wolf form was completely against it prevented me from falling into the mindset and hyperventilation. Carefully, I pulled myself onto my paws, I had a little trouble being stable, but I was able to stand. When I looked back up to the robot, I quickly remembered how big this one was, and the fur by the base of my tail stood up as my wolf acknowledged that he was probably the one in charge here, and we were alone, he could kill me without a second thought, doesn't even have to contact his leader to get the okay to do so, he is the leader.

With my fur all ruffled, and my teeth being bared at the leader, I slowly started to back up, trying to put more space between me and the supposed threat in front of me. It seemed like it wanted to do something, the human part of my brain was telling me that it wanted to pick me up, but the more apparent wolf part was insisting that it was a trick. Suddenly, I heard the strange static buzzing again, it was coming from the robot, and I could tell it was internally distracted. That gave me an opportunity and before my human brain could prevent it, I had already turned around, and about to sprint.

Thankfully, I was stopped by the sight of Miko standing there with an excited expression, but I could still smell the fear that was softly drifting into her scent as I saw her look at my posture. The buzzing suddenly stopped and I had to turn around to face the now focused threat, my wolf had decided that she wasn't a threat compared to the leader of the aliens. I could quickly tell something had changed in the robot's mind as it looked at me with a different expression, almost like it was confused. I heard Miko take in a small breath that was to supply her words.

"Optimus, don't hurt her, she's just scared."

The robot, Optimus his name was, didn't take his glowing eyes off me as he responded to her, some sort of understanding in his tone and expression.

"Yes, I see that Miko, I would be scared if I was experiencing the same things as her."

Miko seemed slightly confused by that, but I guessed she didn't want to dwell on it any longer. With hesitancy, she crept towards my slightly calmer form, I still analyzed every move the leader made, but as she got closer, I started to calm ever so slightly. 

Once she finally made it over to me, it took only brush of her hand over my ruffled form to give me comfort and I truly began to calm and think rationally. Optimus seemed to be a levelheaded being, seeing as he didn't freak out when I came out of seemingly nowhere, and if that was so, it would make more sense, seeing as he is the leader of these powerful beings. I met the robot's eyes, and I could see some sort of understanding beneath that send shivers down my spine that were quickly quelled by the gentle hand running through my relaxed fur coat.

I saw things within Optimus's eyes that held so much depth within them, they seemed to hold so much information and experiences that I knew it was worthy of my respect. It was like he had known that I was searching him for something as it seemed like a dam had suddenly burst. All around me I caught the scent of so many different emotions being projected towards me, I was amazed how someone could harness the flux of emotions so flawlessly as Optimus could.

Something within my wolf instantly gave a title to this being, It didn't look down on me, in a way it seemed to actually regard me as an equal, something to be treated like their own, even though it knew I was weaker and inferior to it in every way. Once the primal half had accepted what has been brought to my attention, it allowed my logical half to survey what it was purposing. I didn't even have to ponder the consequences to the title I was going to give this alien being. I quickly accepted it. Finally, I have an alpha.

_____________________________________

Once a werewolf recognizes one as their alpha, there is almost no way they can disobey or disrespect their leader, one half of their whole being can not be detached from the orders and respect demanded by them. The human half may have some things they would like to complain about, but it was impossible for them to speak, the wolf in them was too loyal. The only way they can stop recognizing that being as their alpha is if they die, or if another being worthy of the title takes their place. So as soon as the agreement was made, I respected and trusted Optimus with all of my being. Something within me settled as I looked up at my new alpha, and I suddenly knew everything was going to be okay, my alpha was going to take care of me, there is no way another being, human or otherwise can harm me.

I felt like I had tunnel vision as I looked upon him, the only thing that mattered to me at the moment, was heeding the first orders given to me by my alpha. I knew I had to please my alpha, make him know I was worthy of being in his pack. I suddenly remembered how I had just ran into him and how I was acting aggressive, I instantly felt I needed to be punished for my insubordination. My tail tucked itself between my legs and my ears became pinned to my head as I carefully walked closer to him. I was thankful that Miko had allowed me to escape her caress as I approached my new leader.

I couldn't meet his eyes as I began to whimper, expecting the worst from his imminent punishment. His enormous feet shifted in front of me and I took that as a signal to stop, suddenly one of his feet slid away from me, giving way to one of his metallic knees which took place on the cold floor. One of his giant hands which was palm up slid into my view, coming closer to me at a slow but steady pace. I heard a whoosh as he took air into his systems.

"Lilly, you must know that I will not hurt you, I will never hurt any being that isn't worthy of such punishment, and there are very few who I feel deserve such harm."

It took me a minute or two to understand what he was saying, and once I understood my tail began to wag uncontrollably. Before I could stop myself from doing something embarrassing, I was licking his outstretched hand as a sign of affection. Once I was able to stop myself from doing so any further, I suddenly realized something, he had said my name, he knew what I was. Something clicked in my brain as I remembered the buzz in the air, that must've been one of the ones that had witnessed me shift, informing him of what was roaming the base. 

As I looked back at my alpha, I saw some sort of sadness overtake his face, and I suddenly understood that he was coming to terms with the face that I was afraid of him, on more than one occasion within the hour I was lashing out in some sort of way because of my fear. I didn't want him feeling such emotions, him being my alpha, and a sentient being, so I looked back at his hand that was still waiting and I realized what he wanted me to do. Carefully I placed my front paws on his hand, and searched for some sort of signal for me to continue in case I had thought wrong. But I was only met with some sort of emotion projecting that he was expecting me to continue, so I did.

With my back paws finally stable on his giant hand, he carefully lifted me to his chest height. Peering over the edge down to the ground, I knew that if I needed to jump for any reason, there is a very slim chance that I would survive. I suddenly got the feeling that Optimus could tell what I was thinking and was minutely saddened by it. My wolf immediately stopped me from thinking of my alpha putting me in danger and I wagged my tail again to show him that I was comfortable with him carrying me.

Turning to face him, to read his expression, I was met with the sight of Miko sitting on his shoulder. A wave of anger washed over me until I realized that Optimus seemed okay with her there, he glanced over at her occasionally seemingly to make sure she wasn't going to fall, and I relaxed back into his palm. Laying down at the edge of his hand, I watched as we walked back to the other autobots to get everything sorted out.

____________________________________

Once we turned the final corner to the group awaiting our arrival, we were met with all of the autobots along with Jack, and Raf waiting for us. They weren't frantically looking around or anything because Optimus had told them that he had found me and was on his way. As soon as Ratchet caught sight of me, he raced forward and nearly snatched me out of our leader's hand.

"How is that even possible? It shouldn't be, there is no way that your body can configure itself into a perfect replica of a wolf."

Ratchet continued his rant on how werewolves shouldn't be possible as he carefully rotated me in his hand, trying to see any faults in my wolf form. When he couldn't find any he stopped talking, took one more look over me, and to my surprise, handed me over to the annoying green and orange one.

"I know you're as interested in this phenomenon as I am Wheeljack, get your fix before you offline from not satisfying your curiosity."

I was really tempted to growl at this so called Wheeljack, but I knew that wouldn't be the best idea, seeing as he seemed like the type of idiot to hurt me and attempt to play it off as a joke. So I stood there patiently as he examined me as well, the comments he whispered to himself began to concern me though as I feared I was seeing a new side of him.

"Does the spine elongate to form the tail, or are the legs just shifted higher? Hmm, that wouldn't work. -new bones subspaced or formed? The skulls are completely different shapes and sizes. Fur- hair grows at extreme rate? Same- claws."

I could only hear small snippets of what he was saying, he was obviously too concentrated on actually thinking about these things than saying them in coherent sentences, that doesn't mean I can't understand what he was saying though, and I was starting to become concerned that I was actually going to become some sort of experiment.

It seemed that Optimus had noticed my discomfort as he caused the strange buzz to go between him and Wheeljack, as soon as I heard that, said bot suddenly seemed to lose his concentration and seemed to space out, which I was thankful for, as he finally took his piercing eyes off of me. Once the static buzz was gone I was being handed over to Optimus, which I was very thankful for. But as soon as I was actually in his hand, I knew that I wasn't going to be "safe" anymore. My alpha was looking at me with an expression I knew wasn't going to be good for me in the long run. 

"Lilly, I'm going to have to ask you to transform into your bipedal form so we can properly talk."

I understood where he was coming from, so I nodded my head, my ears flopping a little bit with the motion and I concentrated on becoming a human, I felt the fur retracting into my skin as my bones and organs began to shift. Suddenly remembered something, I stopped in the middle of the transformation, I probably looked like a disgusting creature as I was currently a cross between a bipedal creature and a quadrupedal creature, I couldn't properly stand, and I couldn't see, hear, smell, or feel things properly. A flash of absolute fear overcame me as I realized how truly vulnerable I was in this state. Carefully I focused on going back to the wolf, willing myself to reverse what I was doing, my fur began to grow back, and my tail began to come back out.

There was no way I was going to be naked in front of a group of people, it doesn't matter is most of them aren't human, I'm not going to let that happen.


	12. Chapter 12

They all looked at me with some form of confusion, and was that a little bit of betrayal I saw? Carefully moving towards the edge of Optimus's palm, I searched the floor for my discarded clothing. I'd much rather be walking around with ugly clothes on than flaunting my nakedness for everyone to see. 

I quickly realized one of the gazes that was upon at me had an almost unfriendly intensity to it. I felt the need to pinpoint where the threat was coming from, but something within me said I shouldn't look directly at the threat. So as I continued to outwardly look for my clothes, I also searched for the one looking at me. Once I found it, I wasn't surprised in the slightest, it was Wheeljack, and something told me that he was going to be ready to completely analyse the next time I shift forms. His glowing eyes were looking at me as if I was more of an experiment then a person, and I knew he was going to be a trouble in my near future.

Suddenly I spotted the clothing that was chilling in front of the entrance to the base, alright, so I knew where they were, now I needed some way to communicate that I needed them. I quickly glanced at the aliens and humans around me, contemplating which one would be more likely to understand what I want to convey. My gaze stopped on the confused and slightly scared Raf that was sitting to the left shoulder of the yellow and black one that he seems fond of. It took me a second to get his attention, but it was fairly easy, seeing as I was pretty much a feral wolf. Once he looked at me and I knew I had his full attention, I started my charade. 

I pointed my snout towards the direction that my clothes were lying, that got Raf to at least glance over there, but he just looked back at me when he didn't see anything that seemed worthy enough to prevent me from shifting. I huffed in annoyance, not at Raf, but at the situation, I know it may seem pity that I'm making such a big deal out of just a pair of clothing, but I seriously don't feel comfortable being naked in front of a bunch of people.

I decided to give it another shot as I pointed my snout again, this time I let out an almost frantic whimper to try and get my point across. Suddenly I heard Miko gasp, and I was surprised when she actually pointed at the pile of discarded clothing.

"When she shifts into human form she wouldn't have any clothes, that's why she stopped."

She had a smug look on her face as she obviously understood that she got the hint before Raf, the boy genius, did. I gave her an abridged version of an eye roll and carefully nodded my head to make sure they knew she was correct. 

Wheeljack seemed to come out of his curiosity induced trance and looked complete and utterly confused by my actions.

"What's so important about your outer coverings anyways, they provide little to no protection and in this section of the planet you don't need it to regulate your body temperature, if anything it seems like it would be more of a hindrance then anything."

I decided not to pay any attention to that as Miko told Jack to get the clothes, seeing as she was still on Optimus's shoulder and it would take her longer to get them. He seemed slightly uncomfortable, and I kinda pitied him, but at the same time, I felt like he needed to man up a little bit. I brought my attention back to Raf when I suddenly felt like something was wrong and I saw he had some sort of sadness whirling in his confusion. I could tell Raf was having a hard time trying to figure this whole situation out, and I had a feeling he was disappointed that he didn't understand what I was trying to convey. 

As Jack was still getting my clothing, he was just coming back and out of the corner of my eye I could see him holding my underwear away from himself like it was toxic and I had to prevent myself from rolling my eyes again. Taking my attention away from the mostly mature teen, I wanted to go down to Raf and try to comfort him, but something told me that it would be better to do so while I was in human form.

Once Jack finally came over with the clothes, Optimus carefully lowered me towards the floor, I jumped off of his hand and walked over to where Jack had set them down for me. It seemed everyone was watching my every move and I still felt uncomfortable, so I looked up at where Miko was, but quickly realized she couldn't properly see me from how high up she was. Suddenly I heard Raf timidly say something, but it was too quiet for me to hear, even with my great hearing. I looked to him, hoping he would repeat what he had said a little louder.

"She doesn't want us watching."

I pulled my lips back in a smile as a thanks, but it just ended up being menacing I realized, as a small spike of fear came from Raf and I quickly stopped, giving him an apologetic whimper. He seemed to understand what that meant and gave a timid smile back before he turned around to give me my requested privacy, Jack and Miko followed his example, Bulkhead and Bumblebee decided to turn away as well without being encouraged to, the other giants didn't seem interested in giving me my privacy, and I guessed I could make do, I had already wasted enough time.

Carefully, I tried to shimmy into the clothes, attempting to get my front legs into the arm holes of the shirt and I somehow managed to get the underwear half way up my back legs when I decided I could get it the rest of the way while I was in the process of shifting. As I began the uncomfortable process, I tried my hardest to keep the process as modest as possible, that when I was done, I was completely covered, my shirt was inside out and I had to put on my bra afterwards, but I knew how to do that underneath my shirt.

Before I was completely finished, my hands were behind my back trying to clasp my bra into place, and suddenly I was being grabbed by Wheeljack who was studying my form again. I flinched when he quickly brought one of his huge fingers towards me. I looked up to his focused face, glared at him, then quickly jerked my head from where he was trying to turn it. He didn't seem to really acknowledge me as he continued to do as I had just silently protested towards. 

Suddenly Ratchet came up next to Wheeljack and started to make really weird mechanical noises that I could only guess was their home language. The red giant said something that practically ripped Wheekjack's attention away from me, and by their expressions and posture, it seemed that they were in some sort of argument. 

As the argument seemed to become more heated I felt the hand that was currently holding me starting to become unstable and I let out a small whimper. Before I knew what I was doing I turned to Optimus who seemed like he was intrigued by their topic and all I saw was a distracted alpha that hadn't noticed my endangerment. I suddenly lost my balance as Wheeljack somehow forgot about me and he began to motion with his hands. A spike of adrenaline shot through my veins as I called for help.

"Alpha! Help!"

Everyone that heard turned their attention towards me, but Optimus was the first to react and he quickly swung his arm down, positioning his hand underneath me. I hit his metal hand hard, I felt the shock wave through my whole body and I felt the air being forced out of my lungs. The pain in my lower back from the shotgun suddenly flared up and I tried my hardest not to cry out in pain. There was a hushed silence as I pulled myself together, making sure to take deep even breathes as I tried to get my breath back. 

A loud crack of metal broke the silence and carefully I looked up to see a strangely shaped dent in Wheeljack's metal head, Ratchet was holding a huge wrench in his hand with a furious look upon his metal face.

"Are you trying to get the human killed you scrap for processors!?"

Wheeljack seemed to break from his trance as he looked to me with a sense of sorrow. He finally looked at me like a person instead of some sort of scientific anomaly. Once I got my breath back, I took a couple Suddenly I heard Miko gasp and I turned to her to see that she was smiling uncontrollably, like she figured out one of my secrets. To be honest, her look freaked me out a little bit, she stared me straight in the eyes as she quietly spoke, loud enough for me to hear, but quiet enough that none of the humans could hear.

"You called Optimus your Alpha."

It seemed the giants heard as well as they looked between me and Miko for an explanation, I shifted underneath their gazes, embarrassed and uncomfortable with all of the attention on me. Apparently Ratchet was slightly more educated on the functions of wolves as he decided to speak under his breath.

"An alpha is the leader of a wolf pack, but pack dynamics were recently disproven."

Miko seemed to have heard as she looked at Ratchet with a determined expression upon her face, something told me that both of them had researched wolves after I had first appeared, and the teen was excited to get into an argument where she was actually educated. I decided not to pay them any attention, cautiously I glanced at the other expressions in the room. Raf quickly caught my attention as I saw he seemed to be intensely thinking, I walked over to him and carefully set my left hand on his right shoulder. He jumped a little and quickly looked to me, he relaxed when he saw who it was and steadily released the breath he was holding.

"So Optimus is your alpha, what does that really mean? Does he have all control over you, is your freedom basically gone?"

I looked into his sad eyes and gave him a somber smile, squeezing his shoulder in a way I hoped was comforting. 

"Not necessarily, but I do have to obey everything he asks of me, don't worry about that though, my wolf chose him for a reason, I believe he will command me accordingly. I trust Optimus with my life."

Wheeljack walked over to us and seemed to have some sort of understanding on his face as he spoke.

"So the rank of Alpha is similar to the title of Prime?"

I gave him a confused tilt of the head, Raf seemed to be preoccupied with trying to connect the two titles as Wheeljack decided to clarify.

"The rank of Prime is earned differently than how your leaders gain power. Primes are chosen by Primus himself and bare the Matrix of Leadership. Primes usually don't want power, they end up with the burden and they never had a choice. I'm guessing that the title of Alpha has some sort of semblance?"

Thinking it over a little bit I shrugged and nodded my head as I figured that was close enough. Gesturing in a way to convey that it wasn't perfect, I brought my attention towards a gaze that I felt was focused on me, which turned out to be a somber Optimus. Ratchet seemed to be on the same page as the Prime, seeing as they were both looking at me like I had lost something. I decided I had enough of this and vocalized my confusion.

"Why are you two looking at me like that?"

The red/orange medic suddenly gave Optimus a somber look and turned away, promptly leaving the conversation and walked over to Wheeljack. The remaining mechanoid blew air out of his systems in a sort of sigh as his glowing eyes flickered in a sort of tired and sorrow filled blink. That kinda concerned me as he seemed to be a usually calm and collected figure. I took a small step back as he crouched down to a height that was closer to mine.

"Lilly, I want to know if you can ever change your choice, or if you must follow my every command for the rest of your life?" 

I looked confidently into the glowing blue orbs, my shoulders noticeably relaxing as I finally realized what was bothering him.

"As long as I know you are following a moral path, then my wolf will not allow me to stray from your guidance."

Optimus seemed to ponder that for a second than nodded his head as he got up. I could tell there was still some internal conflict behind those eyes, but I decided it would be best not to bother him any more. I heard heavy footsteps approaching from behind me, turning around I was met with the sight of Ratchet coming towards me with a new resolve, a mentally occupied Wheeljack was in his wake.

A strange blueish green light suddenly came from his forearm and seemed to scan over my form, leaving tingles on my body. There was a sudden gasp that left the medic and he looked down at me with a disturbed and concerned expression. For some reason I felt like I was just vandalized, I shivered in my skin and glared at the almost frantically moving being.

"What was that, and why did it tingle?"

Ratchet decided not to answer me as I was suddenly picked up, a lot more smoothly than when Wheeljack did so, but it still wasn't pleasant, seeing as I wasn't ready for it. Before I could protest, I was being carried, to where I didn't know.


	13. Chapter 13

Ratchet brought me into a room that I found very familiar, it wasn't until he carefully set me on a giant metal slab that I remembered. It was the same room I was brought into when Optimus hit me that one time, I began to look around the room looking for things that I found familiar, when suddenly the medic carefully forced me to lye on my stomach.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing!?"

His hands were shaking slightly and I could smell some sort of sour emotion coming off of him. I felt more tingling scans repeatedly going over my lower back, the place where I was shot by that old hag. After this realization, I decided to relax, now knowing why Ratchet was acting the way he was.

"So, What's the damage?"

The medic seemed to relax ever so slightly, a slight amount of confusion seeping into his scent.

"So you don't feel any pain, I thought humans couldn't turn off their pain receptors."

I thought that over a little bit, if someone was put into a stressful enough situation, like a car crash or a school shooting and they get injured, they might be able to block the pain out by focusing on surviving or saving the others around them. But after the incident was over with and the adrenaline wore off, they would probably be sore for weeks. It was obvious I wasn't under the effects of adrenaline at the moment, so there was only one other alternative.

"It must be because I have an incredible healing ability, due to the fact that I'm a werewolf, one of the perks."

A thought came to me and a confused look came over my face.

"But it usually healed from the outside in, and I know I don't have any open injuries at the moment, so that means my skin healed over something that was in my body, it had to be deep enough that it wasn't pushed out due to the healing."

Still lying on my stomach, I turned my head to look at the mildly less concerned medic. I could tell fear was wafting off of my frame, I didn't know what was going to happen next, surgeries didn't turn out well for werewolves because the incision always tried to heal over in the process. 

"What is it exactly?"

I felt another more intense tingle wash over my back, this one almost seemed to itch it was so intense. There was a sigh from the mechanoid behind me.

"There are shards of shrapnel near the base of your spine, all of them varying in size."

I suddenly heard a very small shuffle of feet and a muffled gasp. Trying to turn my head to see who it was that had walked into the med bay, I couldn't see them due to my restraints, but I could hear the telltale dial sound of someone typing in a phone number. Before I could try to stop them, I heard them hit dial and the other side started ringing.

It seemed Ratchet knew who it was as he didn't seem interested in stopping them, I even smelled a small waft of something that I believed was relief coming off him. Suddenly I heard the other line being picked up.

"Jack, I've been trying to get a hold of you what hap-"

"Mom can you please come to base, one of my friends is hurt and Ratchet doesn't know how to properly help her, we can talk about all of  that later."

There was a sigh on the other side and I could hear rustling, a loud thump followed by some muffled mumbling. I could hear something that might have been someone putting a sweatshirt on, and then there was a response.

"Alright, I'll be over as soon as possible, and Jack"

A pause and a small almost reluctant sigh.

"You better not make me regret this."

The other line abruptly went silent and I heard the teen put his phone away. The shuffling of feet alerted me of his approach, I heard some soft clanking of metal on metal which I guessed was Ratchet getting some supplies ready. Suddenly I heard more feet approaching, this time I didn't even try to get a look at who it was, I figured trying to get their scent would be more efficient. I got a waft of Raf and then I heard the sound of a worried gasp, followed by more frantic foot steps. Jack decided to answer the child's worries and reassure him that I was getting help.

"My mom is on her way, Lilly will be fine, hopefully."

I could hear Jack whisper the last part under his breath, not wanting to worry the child, but also not being able to tell a lie straight to his face. Suddenly I heard a strange almost supernatural sound, and just as quick as it appeared, it was gone. That seemed to get the attention of all of the beings in the room and they all focused on the entrance of the medbay. I heard paced footsteps coming towards our location, the rustling of smooth cloths rubbing against each other met my ears. 

A sudden realization came to me and I tried to get up, seeing that Ratchet wasn't holding me down anymore, but I was still met with resistance. This concerned me and I began to instinctively squirm in the restraints, trying to break free. 

"Stop you faulty human, what are you trying to do!? Get yourself even more injured?"

I stopped struggling against the restraints and heard the medic huff in what I believed to be annoyance. An almost angered sigh came from the entrance of the medical bay, and then I heard the nurse continue walking towards us.

"Ratchet, what is so wrong with this girl that you had to restrain her? If she can physically complain like that, she should be healthy enough for this to wait until after my shift was over, you know our recent dept has been worse lately."

The orange being didn't seem all too happy with her comment as I saw his expression become even more annoyed. 

"Don't complain to me, Jack was the one that called you here."

I could hear the female shift and take in a breath, she was about to give a retort, but Ratchet interrupted her.

"Anyways, your creation decided to bring home a werewolf with shrapnel at the base of her spine."

Something in the nurse's scent changed as I felt her gaze direct wholly on my figure. It was at that moment I suddenly remembered something my old pack members had told me a long time ago. Werewolves were actually widely known by the government, we weren't hiding in fear that the government would experiment on us, no we hid because the vast amounts of humans we lived with would be too simple minded to see us anymore than beasts. All people who were in the medical field, police force, or higher were informed about the beings that lived alongside them, they were forced to acknowledge our existence and treat us as any other citizen. A shiver went down my spine as I heard determined footsteps begin towards me and felt a calculating stare from behind me. 

"Remove her restraints if you will."

My ears were met with a slight mechanical grumble as Ratchet began to do as she had requested. The sudden feeling of freedom almost overwhelmed me as I felt the tight restraints begin to loosen, I almost jumped up out of instinct, but I felt the intense gaze from the nurse sharpen and I decided it wasn't a good idea. Carefully relaxing back onto my stomach with my head resting on it's left side, I tried to focus on my lower back, where the shrapnel was located. I knew she would need to know any information I could give her, the sooner we could have this over with, the quicker I could actually relax.

Suddenly I felt a gentile hand rest on my shoulder, carefully adjusting my head to face the owner of the hand, I was met with a surprisingly gentile face, she looked so similar to Jackson, there was no doubt in my mind that she was his biological mother. They both shared ocean blue eyes and liquorice black hair, similar jawlines and even the hardened features behind that expression were so similar.

Her expression swiftly changed to a more concerned and focused one, she quickly glanced over my form, but it didn't seem she got any information from that as she turned back to me.

"Have you received any head injuries in the last week?"

I had to think about it over a little bit, I may have when Alpha hit me, but I don't think I have a concussion. There weren't any noticeable signs that I can remember, not any gaps in my memory either.

"No, not that I can recall, I don't believe I have a concussion, why do you ask?"

She gave me a far away look as she replied.

"You seemed to be spacing our, are there any other things you can think of that might be of immediate concern at the moment besides the shrapnel?"

Mulling over everything that happened during and after my escape, I decided there wasn't.

"No, I believe not."

There was a sigh that I believed was from relief as I felt her gaze shift from me. 

"Ratchet, can you please give me your scan reports, I want to know exactly what we're dealing with, if possible I would like to see her vitals."

Her request was followed by more ticklish tingles over my body and I tried not to shiver. I heard this strange sound and suddenly there was a strange light being cast in the room, accompanied by a light buzzing sound.

"Hmm, Lilly, could you tell me exactly what happened to you?"

I had to stop myself from rejecting her the information, I knew she wouldn't be happy with me if I didn't tell her, but I also didn't want her to know that I stole from someone. So I decided to give her half of the story, enough that she knew what had happened.

"Well, I had managed to be spotted by an elderly lady while in wolf form, at the time, she had access to a shotgun and decided I would make a nice rug. Thankfully I managed to get away before she could succeed, she managed to get a shot in at my tail while I was retreating. I was forced to shift before it was properly healed, and now I have shrapnel in my spine."

She seemed satisfied by my response as I saw her shadow turn towards the strange light. I saw her shadow arm come up to her face and brush her hair back in a sign of exhaustion. 

"Alright, I'm no surgeon, but with the help of our otherworldly medic, I believe we can do this."

Her shadow shifted and I felt her gaze on me again.

"All that's left is for us to put you under, we'll need elephant grade tranquilizers for this, seeing as werewolves systems work at a faster rate than regular humans. Thankfully-"

There was a pause as her shadow dropped a shoulder bag that I hadn't noticed before, I heard her unzipping it and she pulled out a vile, setting it down on a makeshift table that was specifically for this nurse I saw her reach back down for a syringe. I had to resist the urge to turn towards the person that I had now unconsciously dubbed a threat as I watched her shadow prepare the syringe, tapping the end of the needle as a little bit of the sedative squirted out of the end.

"I happen to have some in my bag."

My heart started to pound in my chest, adrenaline shooting through my veins. I knew I wasn't in any true danger, but my anxiety started to act up. I was about to be put in the hands of a complete stranger. I was going to be completely unconscious as an alien helped a nurse perform surgery on me.  They were going to cut me open and possibly even cause even more damage because of my healing capabilities. I wasn't ready.

Licking my suddenly dry lips, I spoke in a shaky voice, shuddering in fear.

"I-I don't think this is a good idea, m-maybe it would be fine if you just left-"

I was cut off as I felt a firm grasp on my forearm, instinctively I resisted until the grasp relaxed, waiting for me to do the same. With my heart pounding I attempted to calm my breathing, with still ragged breaths, I relaxed my arm and tried not to react as I felt the pinch of the needle in my inner elbow. There was a wash of what seemed like liquid ice that washed through my veins as it washed closer to my chest. The closer it got the more nervous I became and suddenly I felt like I couldn't breathe.

Gasping for breath, I finally felt the ice envelop my head, the last thing I felt was my panic attack fighting against the sedative, and then, nothing.


	14. Chapter 14

I woke up in pain, god there was so much pain. It felt like I was being carved into by a sadistic maniac. The most painful part on my body was my lower back, all I could feel was the burn of what seemed like liquid fire. 

There was shouting, it was muffled though, I think my body was more focused on the pain than my surroundings. Suddenly I felt a terrible sharpness coming from my back, it almost felt like someone was pulling out my mangled lower spine. The only reason I knew that wasn't happening is because I didn't feel my skull or upper spine being pulled down with it. A pressure on my right shoulder blade seemed to come out of nowhere, somehow I knew that pressure was supposed to be comforting, but sadly it didn't help as I felt more ripping and tearing coming from the same area.

"-tives wore off! This shouldn't have happene-"

I could faintly hear bits and pieces of conversation through the agony. All I knew was pain and darkness, it was at this moment that I realized I couldn't see, that or I just couldn't open my eyes. A searing hot almost burning sensation brought my mind from my lack of sight to my lower back again. Letting out a low moan I tried to understand what was going on. I could barely hear more mumbles before I felt my whole body shiver in a way that felt like my skin was crawling. Suddenly I got a blast of sound and smells around me, mixed with the pain it was overwhelming.

I was practically hit with the iron scent of blood, I didn't have to focus on it to know it was mine. I could smell a peppermint in someone's mouth, hear the every shift of someones movement by the rustling of clothes. Someone was frantic in their breathing, and they seemed to be right over me. An unholy blast of sound made my ears ring in pain, somehow I was able to translate the octaves into words.

"Just try to relax Lilly, we will be done soon. Ratchet is looking for a numbing agent that should work for a long period of time. I'm sorry to say, but you'll just have to bare with me as I try to keep this incision open."

My ears decided to give in that moment, I could no longer hear as the pain took over once again as I felt the scalpel going over the incision site again, trying to keep it open. I could still smell though, and since I couldn't hear anymore, the smells became even more intense. Strange scents covered everything, I could smell the tofu in the nurses breath that she had that morning, but my internal clock was telling me it was it was well into midnight. 

The smell of burning fuel quickly met my nose, but it wasn't a fuel that you would normally find on earth, and by the texture of the scent particles, it was synthesized. It was coming closer to me, like it was approaching, then I started to smell other things mixed in with it. I suddenly felt like I was slapped in the face as I managed to mix together all of the scents, it had to be Ratchet. He was the only candidate that I could think of seeing as there was a large amount of cleaning chemicals that were usually used in hospitals coming off of him, and that he was bringing in my own scent of blood.

All of my senses suddenly had a flash of stimulus and I knew I almost fainted because of it, I got really light headed and felt like I was falling. My limbs acted accordingly and I tried to steady myself, all I truly did was cause the sharp tool for incisions to carve deeper into my back unnecessarily. 

Feeling a gasp of air fill my lungs I tried to focus on that instead of the pain. With each breath in I felt an almost dull throb in my chest, and with each exhale I was met with an almost euphoric numbing through the same area.

"Thank god."

My hearing slowly came to its usually levels while in human form and I felt a small pinch add to the unbearable pain. I felt something that was hard to describe, kinda like jello, start to seep into my veins, and slowly my pain receptors began to quiet. As the jello spread I realized it must've been some sort of numbing agent, probably Novocaine. 

"Lilly, speak to me, is it working or do you still feel pain?"

I had to process the spreading numbing agent that was starting to fade at the base of my neck. I could still feel when the something pulled at the wound, but there was no pain. Swallowing down the groan that threatened to escape, licking at my still dry lips, and I tried to give her an answer.

"N-nnn"

I couldn't get any more out of my dry throat, so I just carefully shook my head. She seemed to understand as she whispered under her breath, sighing in what I believed to be relief.

"good, god I'm so sorry."

It just now occurred to me that I still don't know this lady's name, internally I laughed to myself. Technically I've been letting a total stranger carve into me, my life completely in the hands of someone I don't know. 

Something suddenly felt off, like the numbness was retreating already, I noticed more feeling start to come back, starting at the base of my neck, quickly retreating down my spine. I wanted to move, to crawl away from the pain I knew was coming, but I knew if I moved it would just make everything worse. I had to tell the nurse that the numbing agent was wearing off.

Just as I was about to start trying to get her attention, I heard her speak. By the projection of her voice, she had her head turned, she must be talking to Ratchet.

"I think I got it all, but I want to make sure. Could you do a scan for me?"

There was a slight shake of metal, and I felt the tingle over my body again. It felt weird when it scanned over the numb parts of my spine, almost like I had maggots eating at dead flesh.

Once it was over I heard a relieved sigh followed by the ting of misshapen metal falling onto a steel plate. There was a faint splat of some sort of liquid that fell onto the plate with the discarded shrapnel. Just as I was about to try and stretch my stiff limbs despite the renewing pain, I caught the sight of a bright beam of light projected towards the surgery site. 

Restraining myself from jerking in surprise, I waited for the light to fulfill it's purpose, even if I didn't know what that was. Slowly I felt an intense heat in my lower back, and I knew it wasn't from the incision. The heat and retreating numbness met, I realized what it was. Ratchet was cauterizing my surgery site, probably because he didn't want me to bleed out.

Suddenly the light was gone just as fast as it had appeared. Just in time for the numbness to completely fade away. Deciding I didn't want to be lying here anymore, I positioned my arms underneath me and pushed myself into a kneeling position. It felt kinda weird to have a burn in the same area I was just being carved into, I honestly couldn't tell which one was worse. As I brought myself into a sitting position I tried not to flinch at the pain, I could hear the nurse taking off her gloves, by the sound they were making they were pretty bloody.

"I want you to notify me if you have any complications, and you will be coming in periodically for post op checks."

My eyes widened as I heard the masculine and very human voice behind me, how did I not notice another human in the room with me? I somehow managed to completely miss his scent and didn't hear his heart beat. Before turning around I instinctively took a whiff, trying to catch his scent, but I couldn't smell anything different.

On edge, I turned around to face the male, completely disregarding what he had said that notified me of his presence in favor of finding out their identity.

Immediately I was met with a stone faced middle aged man with red hair. Something in the human half of my brain was telling me that this man was familiar. But my wolf was too focused on the fact his scent wasn't familiar, or more so that he didn't have one. I felt the hair on my arms stand on end as I looked into the man's almost annoyed expression, I didn't know if this man was a threat or not. Trying to give off the impression I was calm and in control of the situation, I attempted to speak in an even tone.

"I'm sorry, and who are you? I don't believe we've met."

I couldn't stop the almost angry tone from seeping into my voice, cringing at that fact, I waited for the man's response. His expression seemed to be that of annoyance, and something in there made me feel like he was indeed a threat.

"It seems werewolves aren't any smarter than the rest of you humans."

A flash of what seemed to be disgust came across his features before his form disintegrated right before my eyes. It was then that I finally heard the nurse stifling a laugh. With the threat finally gone, my human brain took over and I immediately felt like an idiot. I had seen that "man" before, specifically in Ratchet's ambulance form, that was the human form that said medic could project.

Giving the nurse a "you've got be kidding me" look, I suddenly remembered something that had been bothering me this whole time. Tilting my head unintentionally, I asked this nurse, Jack's mother I believe, the question.

"What is your name exactly? You haven't been properly introduced. Well... my wolf know's your scent now so I technically know who you are, but I need a name, if you are willing."

She looked slightly disturbed by what I had said, and I didn't blame her, but she seemed to recover pretty quickly.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, my name is June Darby, you can just call me June. It's a pleasure to meet you, I know you probably get this a lot, but you are the first werewolf I've actually had contact with."

I felt a little off by that comment, but decided not to think too much of it, seeing as I made an uncomfortable comment as well. Before an awkward silence could grow, the door to the room was suddenly thrown open by a thoroughly disgusted Ratchet. I could tell something was off, a familiar scent was mixing with his alien one and... is that lavender?

"I said no! You can not spray the whole can of Febreeze in my alt mode. I don't care if you think I stink, I can take care of that in the wash racks."

Needless to say, my curiosity was piqued as I tried to spot the human he was speaking to. I had a sneaking suspicion of who it was, but I wanted to make sure.

"Ah come on Hatchet! Don't you want to smell like beautiful flowers?"

I could finally see Miko as she spritzed some of the air freshener to emphasize her point. A smile crept it's way onto my face at the girl's antics, even in a semi serious situation she could find some way to cheer everyone up. Miko is like the unintentional breath of fresh air on a foggy night. You don't know where it came from, you're a little scared, but it's honestly kinda refreshing. 

"For Primus sake go spray Wheeljack, he'll probably enjoy it more than me."

Miko huffed and gave a sad spray towards the hard floor, turned around and dragged her feet as she walked out of the medbay. Ratchet gave an exhausted sigh and seemed to force himself to turn away from the almost pathetic sight. Rolling my eyes, I carefully stood up and had to clench my teeth from the pain, gravity was helping put pressure on the area of injury and I wasn't enjoying it.

It seemed Ratchet noticed my discomfort as he was suddenly by my side, I had to stop myself from jumping at the sudden giant figure leaning over me. Looking up to the metal face I gave him a small glare, not necessarily mad at him, more so at the situation. He sighed and I suddenly felt his giant fingers motion to grab me, but stopped right before he actually touched me. Looking up to the robot's face for an explanation I only found an expression that conveyed that he was asking for permission. 

Not quite understanding, but trusting the Medic, I carefully nodded my head telling him I was okay with him doing whatever.

With a surprising amount of carefulness, he positioned his index finger on my stomach, and his thumb in between my shoulder blades. I felt pressure from gravity being relieved from my spine as he started to twist me into a strange position. A scan went over my lower back, which was completely exposed to the alien, the tingles feeling different now that there was a burn instead of an open wound.

I could feel some internal complications with my wolf, I didn't like that I was being completely restrained, before I could voice my opinion of the matter, Ratchet decided to speak. By the way he was speaking, and the fact that he was speaking really quietly, I had a feeling he was talking to himself.

"Magnificent, I can see the healing progress so clearly, any human with 20/20 vision could probably see it."

He seemed to study me more as I started to feel more and more uncomfortable gaze, I was starting to feel like I was in the hands of Wheeljack instead of Ratchet.

"I must document this. So useful for figuring out the healing process of organics."

Somehow that made me feel less uncomfortable, maybe it was because he was more focused on the healing process than trying to see how I tick. Suddenly I felt a small jerk, it seemed to come from the alien's whole body and something mixed in with his scent telling me his emotion had changed.

"I apologize, I am more than infatuated with the rate you are healing. I just need to make sure it heals properly this time."

I was starting to feel like a little kid, being fussed over and restrained by a being bigger than I was, I didn't really like it. As he continued to scan me multiple times, I decided to take in my surroundings a bit more, I had a feeling I was going to be here a long time. Especially because I'm technically an orphaned run away.

...Wait, I am an orphaned run away. Oh god, my life feels so upside down, why did this have to happen? Why couldn't I have a normal life like everyone else, is it because I'm a werewolf, or was it the aliens. Why did I have to acknowledge their presence, If I didn't know about them this would all be different, you know, the butterfly effect.

"What are you worrying about now? Your blood pressure just elevated dramatically"

Cursing myself, I tried to calm down making sure my mind didn't drift into dark places, I didn't want to bother Ratchet with my mental problems either. Quickly trying to think of an excuse or half truth that I could tell him, jumping on the first one I found. Turning my head to look at the slightly concerned medic, I gave him a smile that I hoped was reassuring.

"I was just wondering if the other aliens are looking for me, I don't want to be captured again."

It was only after the words had come out of my mouth that I realized that wasn't any better than what I was really thinking about, In fact it might just be worse.

Once I saw his reaction I knew it was definitely worse than the other option, he had a look of confusion almost completely drown out by surprise and anger. 

"What do you mean other aliens? You've been captured by other cybertronians?"

Hoping he didn't overreact, I was cringing as I gave my answer.

"Yeah, they had red eyes and weren't too friendly."

His face went through a series of emotions, scent fluxing with different emotional smells. He seemed to settle on outraged which I was frightened by, seeing as he could easily kill me without a thought. It was at that moment I concluded that an unhappy 'cybertronian was it?' is not a fun cybertronian.

"Primus femme! Why didn't you tell us that in the first place!?"

He stilled in a way that gave away that he was silently communicating, and I started to realize, it was definitely going to be a long night.


	15. Chapter 15

Needless to say, Ratchet was appalled at the fact I hadn't brought up that I was kidnapped by the Decepticons. He had called over a concerned Optimus who was quickly followed by the nurse, June. 

When they entered they were met with the sight of me and the orange medic arguing.

"I didn't think it was that big of a deal! I got kidnapped by this red cybertronian who I think goes by the name of Knockout. But It's fine, Steve brought me to an animal hospital because a had a broken paw. I managed to escape, everything's fine, I don't understand the big deal."

I saw the mechanoid in front of me fuming, I could tell his systems were running harder than usual. I was tempted to tell him to calm down before he had a heart attack or the alien equivalent. Suddenly he materialized the same giant wrench that he threw at Wheeljack, but before he could throw it, he was stopped by an annoyed sounding Optimus.

"Ratchet, put down the wrench, you know as well as I do that it would have more consequences than you would want to deal with."

Said alien took what seemed to be a deep breath, and lowered his arm that was tightly wielding the wrench. His glowing orbs for eyes dimmed in what I believed to be a long blink, and I saw his metal shoulders relax ever so slightly.

"Yes Optimus, you are right, I apologize."

Alpha gave the now calm medic an unsatisfied look, turning his attention towards me as he continued to speak to the other cybertronian.

"I'm not the one you should be apologizing to."

Before Ratchet could give a response, Optimus gave me his whole attention. Something in his eyes held a sort of sadness, one that made my wolf disappointed at the fact I didn't tell him everything that had happened. If I was in wolf form, my ears would've been back and my tail tucked between my legs. Just the thought made my lower back throb in the dull pain on my spine. My attention was quickly focused on Alpha as he began to speak.

"Lilly, I want you to trust us, can you tell me the whole story."

So I told them everything from the first time I met Raf to now, Ratchet seemed almost offended when I was explaining how I was fearing for my life the first time I came to base. June was relatively quiet until I explained how I found my dad's corpse. She gasped and I could see pity in her eyes, I didn't really want her pity, but I also didn't want to seem rude, so I continued on with my story. Ratchet seemed appalled that he had dropped me off at home after I was just attacked, only to come home to my only parent dead. Optimus was stone faced through my whole explanation, although, I saw a little bit of a mental flinch in his eyes when I mentioned my encounter with the decepticon in the hallway.

I had to stop myself from thinking too deeply into the fear I felt while being chased by Laserbeak. Shivers still go down my spine when I remember the metal talons digging into my sides.

There was a small amount of disappointment from Alpha when I was explaining the events in the clothing store, and I could see he wasn't too happy when I mentioned the shotgun and how the shrapnel managed to stay inside my body. I could that anger was pointed more at said clerk who shot me.

I suddenly stopped as remembered that I hadn't properly thanked Ratchet, so I took the time to do that. I felt I didn't need to finish, seeing as everyone already knew what happened next, Jack had more than likely filled them in.

The first one to say anything after all of that, was June. She had a solemn look upon her face, she seemed lost in her mind as she spoke.

"My coworker looked over your fathers body, God, I'm so sorry. I hate to ask this, but do you have any relatives?"

I gave her a strange look as she seemed to instantly regret what she said. The death of my mother was long ago, and I wasn't effected by it. My father was an only child, while my mother had two siblings, but they both were either in the military or off in a different country.

"An aunt and an uncle, but they are far away and can't take care of me. You don't have to worry though, I can take care of myself."

I had to stop myself from explaining further, she would certainly disagree with the thought of me living the rest of my life like a wild wolf, only turning human to interact with my friends. Optimus gave me a look like he knew I was either lying or not telling the whole truth. I couldn't stop from shrinking into myself at the fact my Alpha disproved of my actions. It seemed he understood why I was suddenly curling inward, and his eyes quickly radiated forgiveness.

Trying to pull myself from this weird internal conversation, I noticed Ratchet and June were watching us, one of them with almost fascination, while the other was puzzled at our actions. Just as June opened her mouth, presumably to voice her confusion, she was interrupted by Optimus.

"Lilly, I feel it would be best if you stayed with us at base."

Stopping myself from giving a retort I carefully nodded my head, my eyes glazing over ever so slightly as I slowly became lost in my thoughts. My senses were telling me that the beings around me were moving away, I believe to give me some room for myself. 

I didn't want to be a burden to these beings, they already had enough on their plate as is with this battle they have with the Decepticons. I would just be in the way, especially if they have to constantly watch where they stop. My senses suddenly sharpened as I realized I wasn't paying attention to my surroundings. The sound of a hushed conversation caught my attention, and I unconsciously began to eavesdrop. 

"-risk, you don't have the proper experience and necessities to take care of a human, let alone a teenager. The food in the fridge isn't fit to live off of, you don't even have a proper area for her to wash herself. I think it would be in her best interest to go to a foster home."

There was no way I was going to a foster home, I didn't want to live through the pain of loosing more family members. They wouldn't understand me, heck there were no werewolves around here and my foster parents would probably wonder why I was gone on full moons. 

I also disapproved of how June was speaking towards my alpha, but I knew she had a point in her argument. It seemed Optimus did as well, as he provided a counter to her claim.

"We will adapt, I know Ratchet has been looking more and more into the medical field of your species. Wheeljack would be thrilled by the thought of creating more things for her benefit, and I l know Bulkhead wouldn't mind using his constructive skills in applying Wheeljack's creation into the base. It will take some adjusting, but it will be fine June. Trust me."

Said nurse sighed in defeat, she gave him a pointed look after that, obviously wanting him to heed her request/demand.

"Alright, but if I found out that you have been neglecting her, I will know, and I will have to do something about it, do you understand."

I could tell Optimus wasn't too worried about what the female would do, I wasn't sure if it was because he didn't think she could go through with it, or if he knew it wouldn't come to that. His expression gave nothing away, but I believed the Prime was mentally going through all of the possibilities for the future.

"I understand June, we will take care of her."

She nodded her head at him, suddenly I was brought out of the conversation by approaching footsteps. I turned to identify who was coming, only to be met with the sight of a surprisingly somber Miko who had just rounded the corner to the medbay, followed by Bulkhead. The bulky cybertronian's footsteps attracted the attention of everyone in the room and I heard Ratchet grumble about so many healthy people in his medbay. 

It was strange seeing Miko like this, the usually rambunctious teenager reduced to what seemed to be a kicked puppy. As she got closer to me, I noticed she was looking down into the cupped palm of her hand. Once she got in civilized speaking distance, she raised her head and gave me a small smile as she presented the shrapnel pieces that Ratchet had extracted from my back.

"D-do you mind if I use these? I want to make something out of them."

I was a little confused by why she wanted to make something out of the metal that had caused me immense amounts of pain. But I decided not to think too much about it, and honestly, I was a little curious about what she would make out of them.

"Sure, I don't mind, go ahead."

Giving her a reassuring smile as confirmation, I saw her eyes light up and she firmly cupped her hands around the shrapnel as she began to jump in excitement. 

"ThankyouThankyouThankyou! You won't regret this."

She turned around to face a smiling Bulkhead and ran over to him, whispering something along the way. Surprisingly I couldn't hear what she was saying, but I guess that doesn't matter, I have a feeling I will learn soon enough. 

I turned around to see if Optimus and June were continuing their conversation, and I was met with the sight of Ratchet, standing right in front of me, gazing off at the retreating Miko. He quickly noticed I was looking at him, his face hardened and he sighed under his mechanical breath.

"Femmes."

He turned around and walked towards a counter that had what seemed to be medical equipment on it. Deciding not to pay him any attention, I looked over to Optimus, only to see that he wasn't there. My senses immediately kicked up as I listened and scented the air for any trace of my Alpha. As soon as I caught it, I spun towards the direction of the entrance again only to catch a glimpse of June, who I guessed was following Optimus.

Shouting a farewell to the now occupied medic, I quickly ran after the two. Something was telling me that Optimus had left in a hurry, and if that is so, than something important had come up. 

The closer I got to the source of his scent, the more panicked everyone sounded. Just as I rounded the corner, ear splitting alarms started to sound throughout the base. Flinching at the sound, I squinted in pain over to the congregation of cybertronians. Wheeljack was at one of the huge monitors, frantically clicking away at the control panel. Bumblebee was trying to reign in Miko, Raf, and Jack. The later teen seemed to be the most effected by the ordeal. Bulkhead and Optimus were standing over by Wheeljack, closely watching the information that was scrolling across the screen.

There were hushed inhuman sounds coming from the three by the control panel. Raf looked like he was utterly lost in his emotions, Jack looked to be calm, but I could smell his fear and concern from way over here. Miko was blankly looking around the room, presumably to find something to distract herself with.

Suddenly I heard fast and heavy footsteps running in my direction from behind me, on instinct I jumped to the side, leaning up against the wall. I only caught a glimpse of the passing figure as Ratchet was suddenly pushing Wheeljack aside, taking over the controls.

I watched Ratchet pull up some sort of command, type in a complex code, and suddenly the alarm stopped. 

There was an almost tense silence as everyone waited for something to happen, everyone's eyes glued to the screen. When a request bar popped up on the far right, there was hesitance as Ratchet hit accept.

A quiet gasp rang in my ears as a cybertronian popped up on the screen, from the symbol on his chest, it seemed to be a decepticon.

I was surprised to see it was in real time as the picture began to move in fluid motions, the decepticon was giving off a sinister air as a chaotic smile crept onto his face with a sneer. Optimus's scent seeped with a bitter smell, but he didn't outwardly show this change in emotion as he spoke to the rival cybertronian.

"Megatron, what have you done with Arcee."

His question came out more as a demand, a small amount of bite in his tone. Megatron's smile grew wider as he motioned off camera without taking his red eyes off of the screen.

"Don't worry Prime, your little femme hasn't come to harm yet, but if you don't give me what I want, then she will be mine."

A sadistic look came over his features and I quickly realized the double meaning behind that statement. It seemed most of the autobots did as well, there were growls of disgust coming from them. Optimus didn't show any reaction to the comment, but the bitter scent of emotion grew.

"What is it that you think we have?"

I felt shivers go down my spine as I saw his gaze level off on me, an angered expression forming as he sneered.

"I want the fleshling that goes by the designation "Lilly Reager", she has caught my optic, seeing as she is able to transform."

My stomach lurched as I tried my hardest to think about how he knew it was me. I didn't see any cameras in the room when I shifted, and neither Knockout nor Breakdown had seen me shift. From what Steve was telling me, the one that ordered him to get me to help wouldn't tell their leader, because it was seen as a weakness. So how did they know I was a werewolf?

It seemed Megatron knew about my inner turmoil as he looked directly at me with a smirk, it seemed to grow as he watched me wrack my brain more and more. When finally, I could see his shoulder move, and his arm came up to show my phone that had teeth marks in it. I could see that it was tampered with, probably hacked to get information out of it, and I had to stop myself from shouting in anger.

How could I be so stupid as to leave evidence at the crime scene? 


	16. Chapter 16

Megatron was utterly pleased by the anger that was coming off of me, I just faintly acknowledged how he smugly crushed the phone in his forefinger and thumb. The electronic put up no resistance against his impossibly strong digits and crumbled to the floor.

It seemed like everything around me was gone, I had tunnel vision, I couldn't hear anyone talking. I could feel multiple gazes moving back and forth between me, Optimus and Megatron. I knew there was a choice that had to be made. It was either me or one of Alpha's trusted. 

I heard every shift of metal, the rustle of anxious humans, and it was when I heard the cycle of Alpha's system, I made up my mind. 

Thoughts racing as I tried to figure out a successful plan, I finally heard communication, but I couldn't make out the words. I glanced over to the screen that portrayed the face of my soon to be captor, I saw him give me a small glace, when he realized I was looking at me, he gave me look that promised pain, but there was also a small amount of curiosity behind those red eyes.  When I knew he was watching, I carefully gave him a nod, hoping he knew what that meant.

I could see a smugness come over his features and Optimus started to become nervous. I felt bad about that, but I knew this was necessary for one of Alpha's trusted. 

Quickly sweeping the surroundings for a possible witness, I carefully backed into the corner near an emergency exit. Carefully making sure no one heard me, I slowly shifted to prevent any sound. It hurt, but it was imperative that I be able to leave the silo. As my clothes slipped off they were replaced with the rapid growing fur covering my body. Once I was in full wolf form, I carefully shimmied out of the brightly colored clothes that were still on my form. 

Knowing the emergency door would sound an alarm as soon as it was opened, I sprinted towards the door, my claws loudly ticking on the hard floor. My heart was pounding in my ears as I heard shouting behind me. Once I was in range to open the door, I got onto my back legs and pushed it open with all of the force of my momentum. Just as I heard the lock sliding out of its place, an alarm turned on and it began to blare with an unbearable intensity.

It was just as the door closed behind me and I fell onto all fours that I realized I didn't know where the Decepticon's base was, and I wasn't even certain they would release Arcee. The door rapidly swung open behind me and kicked my legs into high gear.  

"Lilly you need to come back! Megatron probably has scouts looking for you, please!"

I was a little tempted to return by the sadness in Bulkhead's voice, but I knew I couldn't stop for the sake of Arcee's survival. Something in the sky caught my attention and I looked up at it. The large form of what seemed to be a bird was coming towards us. Then I remembered, it had to be Laserbeak, he was my way to the decepticon base. 

Turning towards the direction of the decepticon, I ran with new abandon, the opportunity within reach. I had to save Arcee!

A very faint transformation sound came to my ears and I knew someone was coming for me. As the engine revved I felt like I was going to have a heart attack, attempting to out run Wheeljack who was quickly approaching. Trying to get to the approaching metal bird, I couldn't help but notice the lack of comment coming from Wheeljack. It was actually concerning and I was thoroughly terrified when I felt my tail thwack on the side of his vehicle form. 

"If you don't stop, I'm going to have to force you to."

He said this in an even tone, he was serious. A new determination came over me and I took advantage of my nimble form and quickly pivoted, hoping to juke out my pursuer. The sudden change in direction left me temporarily blind as I had to take in my surroundings and keep my balance while still running. Once I was able to actually process what was in front of me, my eyes widened and I tried to stop, digging my paws in the ground to get some sort of traction.

It wasn't enough as I very firmly hit my head on the yellow and black sports car that seemed to come out of nowhere. I barely managed to hear a distressed sound coming from the vehicle before It was cut off and I fell into darkness.


End file.
